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Jacques Attali Quotes

In noise can be read the codes of life, the relations among men. Clamour, Melody, Dissonance, Harmony; when it is fashioned by man with specific tools, when it invades man’s time, when it becomes sound, noise is the

In noise can be read the codes of life, the relations among men. Clamour, Melody, Dissonance, Harmony; when it is fashioned by man with specific tools, when it invades man’s time, when it becomes sound, noise is the source of the purpose and power, of the dream – Music.

Jacques Attali
Dream, Men, Sound
Jacques Attali (1985). “Noise: The Political Economy of Music”, p.6, Manchester University Press

Now we must learn to judge a society by its sounds.

Jacques Attali
Inspiration, Judging, Sound

Change is inscribed in noise faster than it transforms society.

Jacques Attali
Noise, Faster
Jacques Attali (1985). “Noise: The Political Economy of Music”, p.5, Manchester University Press

What is noise to the old order is harmony to the new.

Jacques Attali
Order, Noise, Harmony
Jacques Attali (1985). “Noise: The Political Economy of Music”, p.35, Manchester University Press

For twenty-five centuries, Western knowledge has tried to look upon the world. It has failed to understand that the world is not for the beholding. It is for hearing. It is not legible, but audible.

Jacques Attali
Twenties, Looks, World
Jacques Attali (1985). “Noise: The Political Economy of Music”, p.3, Manchester University Press

What is called music today is all too often only a disguise for the monologue of power. However, and this is the supreme irony of it all, never before have musicians tried so hard to communicate with their audience, and never before has that communication been so deceiving. Music now seems hardly more than a somewhat clumsy excuse for the self-glorification of musicians and the growth of a new industrial sector.

Jacques Attali
Communication, Self, Growth
"Classic Essays on Twentieth-Century Music". Book by Richard Kostelanetz, Joseph Darby, 1996.

For twenty-five centuries, Western knowledge has tried to look upon the world. It has failed to understand that the world is not for the beholding. It is for hearing. It is not legible, but audible. Our science has always desired to monitor, measure, abstract, and castrate meaning, forgetting that life is full of noise and that death alone is silent: work noise, noise of man, and noise of beast. Noise bought, sold, or prohibited. Nothing essential happens in the absence of noise.

Jacques Attali
Men, Twenties, Essentials
Jacques Attali (1985). “Noise: The Political Economy of Music”, p.3, Manchester University Press

Global governance is just a euphemism for global government.

Jacques Attali
Government, Euphemism, Governance

The first path a human being ever travels is the path that leads out of the maternal womb. Every human being's first labyrinth is that of a woman.

Jacques Attali
Labyrinth, Path, Firsts

Man's tragedy is that when he can do something, in the end he will always do it

Jacques Attali
Men, Tragedy, Ends
Jacques Attali (2009). “A Brief History of the Future: A Brave and Controversial Look at the Twenty-first Century”, Arcade Publishing

Today, music heralds... the establishment of a society of repetition in which nothing will happen anymore.

Jacques Attali
Music, Today, Establishment
Jacques Attali (1985). “Noise: The Political Economy of Music”, p.5, Manchester University Press

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