Explore popular quotes and sayings by an American musician Sun Ra.
Last updated on November 5, 2024.
Le Sony'r Ra, better known as Sun Ra, was an American jazz composer, bandleader, piano and synthesizer player, and poet known for his experimental music, "cosmic" philosophy, prolific output, and theatrical performances. For much of his career, Ra led "The Arkestra", an ensemble with an ever-changing name and flexible line-up.
Not too many people in America know about me, but all of Europe knows about me.
What I'm dealing with is so vast and great that it can't be called the truth. It's above the truth.
Today's symphonic music is sponsored by the upper structures of society.
I use music as a medium to talk to people.
But recently I began to feel that maybe I wouldn't be able to do what I want to do and need to do with American musicians, who are imprisoned behind these bars; music's got these bars and measures you know.
I'm not a minister, I'm not a philosopher, I'm not a politician, I'm in another category.
I am a musician, but I'm another type of musician.
Bach and Beethoven, all of them, they had to write something to please the upper structure, those with money and power.
I see people as they really are from a pure point of view.
A world is in danger, this planet is in great danger!
And then when I went to Chicago, that's when I had these outer space experiences and went to the other planets.
I'm playing dark history. It's beyond black. I'm dealing with the dark things of the cosmos.
People have set that up as a standard, not to recognize a prophet in his own country.
Music is a language, you see, a universal language.
All these other nations seem to appreciate what I'm doing and they want me to play the furthest out things.
A prophet is not without honor except in his own country among his own people.
It's such a tragedy that man endures in killing his brother and his own kind, putting him in jail and insane asylums, letting him lay out in the street.
The world is in such a bad condition that if they don't find what you call a redeemer, every man, woman and child on this planet will be eliminated.
Freedom of Speech is Freedom of Music.
I'm not into division. I'm into coordination, discipline and tradition.
The real aim of music is to co-ordinate the minds of the people into an intelligent reach for a better world and an intelligent approach to the living future.
I always say it's not my Arkestra, it belongs to some other force which wants certain things, to reach people.
Those who will not dance will have to be shot
Somewhere in the other side of nowhere is a place in space beyond time where the Gods of mythology dwell. ... These gods dwell in their mythocracies as opposed to your theocracies, democracies, and monocracies. They dwell in a magic world. These Gods can even offer you immortality.
Proper evaluations of words and letters in their phonetic and associated sense can bring the people of earth to the clear light of pure cosmic wisdom.
Where human eyes have never seen, where human beings have never been, I build a world of abstract dreams, and I wait for you.
The planet is asleep and it's the fault of musicians who are untrue to themselves.
If you’re not mad at the world, you don’t have what it takes
If death is the absence of life, then death's death is life.
The outer space beings are my brothers. They sent me here. They already
know my music.
The music is not part of this planet in a sense that the spirit of it is about happiness. Most musicians play earth things about what they know, but I found out that they are mostly unhappy and frustrated, and that creeps over into their music.
Well, actually, I'm a psychic being, and you know, we don't concern ourselves with being born; we concern ourselves with being eternal; we deal with the spirit.
I think of myself as a complete mystery. To myself.
In the world of tomorrow, the new man will 'think' the place he wants to go, then his mind will take him there.
At first there was nothingthen nothing turned itself inside-out and became something
The earth moves in a certain rhythm, a certain sound, a certain note. When the music stops the earth will stop and everything upon it will die.
Behold the pre-prophetic symbols of the planes of Never. Behold, behold this thisness! This isness.
The light of the future casts the shadows of tomorrow.
Music is a plane of wisdom, because music is a universal language, it is a language of honor, it is a noble precept, a gift of the Airy Kingdom, music is air, a universal existence common to all the living.
I’m not a prophet. I’m a destiny-changer. It’s all right to prophesy, but the best thing to do is change things, if you’ve got the power.
Sometimes in the ignorance I feel the meaning Invincible invisible wisdom, And I commune with intuitive instinct With the force that made life be And since it made life be It is greater than life And since it let extinction be It is greater than extinction. I commune with feelings more than prayer
With music you can express any emotion, you can paint pictures.
Music is not material. Music is Spiritual.
The world thinks that music is a commercial commodity. I'm glad that is not my code.
I have many names; some call me Mr. Ra, others call me Mr. Re, you can call me Mr. Mystery.
Space is not only high, it's low. It's a bottomless pit.
Music can be the bridge to understanding, but people have to get some knowledge.
The possible has been tried and failed. Now it's time to try the impossible.
Heaven is where you'll be when you are okay right where you are.
I never wanted to be a part of planet Earth, but I am compelled to be here, so anything I do for this planet is because the Master-Creator of the Universe is making me do it. I am of another dimension. I am on this planet because people need me.
Art does not begin with imitation, but with discipline.
It takes a motion to notion
and it takes a notion to motion.