Sun Ra

Sun Ra (22 May 1914 – 30 May 1993), born Herman Poole Blount, legal name Le Sony'r Ra, was a jazz composer, bandleader, piano and synthesizer player, poet and philosopher known for his "cosmic philosophy," musical compositions and performances.

Quotes



 * 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.
 * Liner notes for Cosmic Tones for Mental Therapy (1966)


 * In some far off place Many light years in space I’ll wait for you. Where human feet have never trod, Where human eyes have never seen. I'll build a world of abstract dreams And wait for you.
 * Liner notes to Monorails and Satellites (1968)


 * I think of myself as a complete mystery. To myself.
 * Interview with Jennifer Rycenga (2 November 1988)


 * I probably do what I'm controlled to do. Something … made all this: some Impossibility without a name. That's what the world is controlled by: an Impossibility. It's controlled by someone they call "God" who never had a beginning and naturally had no end. And in a sense He doesn't exist, because of the standards of reality, because everybody knows something can't just happen — but if there is a God, that's what happened; just happened to be, and without ever having not been — they got to face that.
 * Interview with Jennifer Rycenga (2 November 1988)


 * 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.
 * Interview with Jennifer Rycenga (2 November 1988)


 * 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.
 * As quoted in a press release by A&M Records (1989)


 * What I'm dealing with is so vast and great that it can't be called the truth. It's above the truth.
 * As quoted in Sun Ra : Un noir dans le cosmos (2005) by Aurélien Tchiemessom


 * People have a lot more of the unknown than the known in their minds. The unknown is great; it's like the darkness. Nobody made that. It just happens. Light and all that — someone made that; it's written that they did. But nobody made the darkness. My music is about dark tradition. Dark tradition means a lot more about than black tradition. There's a lot of division in what they call black. I'm not into division. I'm into coordination, discipline and tradition.
 * As quoted in "Space is still the place" by W. Kim Heron in Metro Times (6 June 2007)


 * 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.
 * As quoted in "Sun Ra : Stranger from Outer Space" by Mike Walsh at missionCreep

Sun Ra : The Immeasurable Equation (2005)

 * Sun Ra : The Immeasurable Equation : The Collected Poetry and Prose (2005) edited by James L. Wolf and Hartmut Geerken


 * 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
 * "The Differences" (1970), p. 132


 * I see them as they are to is And not the seeming isness of the was.
 * "The Differences" (1970), p. 132


 * 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. Music is existence, the key to the universal language. Because it is the universal language.
 * "The Neglected Plane of Wisdom" (1966), p. 250


 * Freedom of Speech is Freedom of Music.
 * "The Neglected Plane of Wisdom" (1966), p. 250


 * Music is not material. Music is Spiritual.
 * "The Neglected Plane of Wisdom" (1966), p. 250


 * The future is never Never comes tomorrow Never is not 
 * "Tomorrow is Never" (1972), p. 252


 * Behold the pre-prophetic symbols of the planes of Never. Behold, behold this thisness! This isness.
 * "Tomorrow is Never" (1972), p. 252


 * It takes a motion to notion and it takes a notion to motion.
 * "Tomorrow is Never" (1972), p. 253


 * Out of nowhere they come like embers suddenly aflame With living reach Spiral infinity Being. Yes. Out of nowhere they come from the no point.
 * "The No Point", p. 256


 * When the person Myth meets the person Reality The spirit of the impossible-strange appears In dark disguise It is always there where nothing inverts itself and becomes something Whatever is the imperative need
 * "The No Point", p. 256