Which is more musical: a truck passing by a factory or a truck passing by a music school?
Food, one assumes, provides nourishment; but Americans eat it fully aware that small amounts of poison have been added to improve its appearance and delay its putrefaction.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote reflects on the paradox of how food is consumed in America with an awareness of the unnatural additives that alter it.
John Cage's quote highlights the irony of modern food consumption in America, where individuals are conscious of the fact that additives are used to enhance the aesthetic appeal and shelf life of what they eat. This thought provokes a deeper reflection on our relationship with food, raising questions about health, authenticity, and the compromises made in the pursuit of convenience and attractiveness in the daily diet.
Themes
In practice
Example use cases
During a public speaking event about food safety, one might use this quote to illustrate the hidden dangers of processed foods.
More from John Cage
All quotes →There was a German philosopher who is very well known, his name was Immanuel Kant, and he said there are two things that don’t have to mean anything, one is music and the other is laughter. Don’t have to mean anything that is, in order to give us deep pleasure.
I remember loving sound before I ever took a music lesson. And so we make our lives by what we love.
I can't understand why people are frightened of new ideas. I'm frightened of the old ones.
People who aren't artists often feel that artists are inspired. But if you work at your art you don't have time to be inspired.
Let no one imagine that in owning a recording he has the music. The very practice of music is a celebration that we own nothing.
Similar quotes
There’s nothing more embarrassing than a person who tries to guess what the great American public would like, makes a compromise for the first time, and falls flat on his face… I would rather be a failure on my own terms than a success on someone else’s. That’s a difficult statement to live up to, but then I’ve always believed that the way you affect your audience is more important than how many of them are there.
It has served us well, this myth of Christ.
If we live truly, we shall see truly.
The same is the case when you enter a womb, enter into a fresh body, and start the journey of desires. But if you die alert, in that alertness not only the body dies, all desires evaporate. Then there is no entering into a womb. Then entering a womb is such a painful process, it is so painful that consciously you cannot do it; only unconsciously you can do it.
Mr. Lyell's system of geology is just half the truth, and no more. He affirms a great deal that is true, and he denies a great deal which is equally true; which is the general characteristic of all systems not embracing the whole truth.
It is the duty of man to raise up man.