Jean Cocteau

Jean Cocteau

"All spiritual journeys are martyrdoms"
43 Quotes
"All spiritual journeys are martyrdoms"
Jean Cocteau
"One of the characteristics of the dream is that nothing surprises us in it. With no regret, we agree to live in it with strangers, completely cut off from our habits and friends."
Jean Cocteau
"The instinct of nearly all societies is to lock up anybody who is truly free. First, society begins by trying to beat you up. If this fails, they try to poison you. If this fails too, the finish by loading honors on your head."
Jean Cocteau
"Poetry is indispensable - if I only knew what for."
Jean Cocteau
"A true poet does not bother to be poetical. Nor does a nursery gardener scent his roses."
Jean Cocteau
"The poet doesn't invent. He listens."
Jean Cocteau
"Life is a horizontal fall."
Jean Cocteau
"The extreme limit of wisdom, that's what the public calls madness."
Jean Cocteau
"I have a piece of great and sad news to tell you: I am dead."
Jean Cocteau
"I have lost my seven best friends, which is to say God has had mercy on me seven times without realizing it. He lent a friendship, took it from me, sent me another."
Jean Cocteau
"Art produces ugly things which frequently become more beautiful with time. Fashion, on the other hand, produces beautiful things which always become ugly with time."
Jean Cocteau
"The reward of art is not fame or success but intoxication: that is why so many bad artists are unable to give it up."
Jean Cocteau
"An artist cannot speak about his art any more than a plant can discuss horticulture."
Jean Cocteau
"The actual tragedies of life bear no relation to one's preconceived ideas. In the event, one is always bewildered by their simplicity, their grandeur of design, and by that element of the bizarre which seems inherent in them."
Jean Cocteau
"A film is a petrified fountain of thought."
Jean Cocteau
"The poet is a liar who always speaks the truth."
Jean Cocteau
"I believe in luck: how else can you explain the success of those you dislike?"
Jean Cocteau
"All good music resembles something. Good music stirs by its mysterious resemblance to the objects and feelings which motivated it."
Jean Cocteau
"Since the day of my birth, my death began its walk. It is walking toward me, without hurrying."
Jean Cocteau
"You've never seen death? Look in the mirror every day and you will see it like bees working in a glass hive."
Jean Cocteau
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