If you think something is boring, try doing it for two minutes. If you still think it's boring, try it for four. If you still think it's boring, try it for eight, then sixteen, then thirty-two, and so on and so forth. Soon enough you'll find that it's really not boring at all.

learning boring

About John Cage

Portrait of John Cage

John Milton Cage Jr. (September 5, 1912 – August 12, 1992) was an American composer, visual artist and music theorist. A pioneer of indeterminacy in music, electroacoustic music, and non-standard use of musical instruments, Cage was one of the leading figures of the post-war avant-garde. Critics have lauded him as...

More quotations from John Cage

[My aunt] was doing her laundry. She turned to me and said, "You know, I love this machine much more than I do your Uncle Walter.

The first question I ask myself when something doesn't seem to be beautiful is why do I think it's not beautiful. And very shortly you discover that there is no reason.

If you develop an ear for sounds that are musical it is like developing an ego. You begin to refuse sounds that are not musical and that way cut yourself off from a good deal of experience.

I can't understand why people are frightened of new ideas. I'm frightened of the old ones.

fear ideas novelty

I have nothing to say, and I am saying it, and that is poetry.

More quotations tagged with “learning”

Each problem that I solved became a rule which served afterwards to solve other problems.

—Rene Descartes

learning knowledge problems

Your mind will answer most questions if you learn to relax and wait for the answer.

—William S. Burroughs

wonder questions learning knowledge

I learned to make my mind large, as the universe is large, so that there is room for paradoxes.

—Maxine Hong Kingston

mind learning universe

I believe that people come into your life and then some go. I also think there’s a purpose as to why they were in your life at all. Each one takes a piece of you when they go. Some leave pieces of themselves with you. Sometimes it’s wisdom, or maybe, it’s a lesson.

—Shey Stahl in Waiting for You

life learning memory people

Love is when you meet someone who tells you something new about yourself.

—Andre Breton

History

30 Oct 2013 Added