Jean Cocteau
France
5 Jul 1889 // 1963
Poet, / Novelist / Dramatist
5 Jul 1889 // 1963
Poet, / Novelist / Dramatist
Quotes
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The Louvre is a morgue; you go there to identify your friends
The joy of youth is to disobey; but the trouble is that there are no longer any orders
The greatest masterpiece in literature is only a dictionary out of order
The extreme limit of wisdom, that's what the public calls madness
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
Such is the role of poetry. It unveils, in the strict sense of the word. It lays bare, under a light which shakes off torpor, the surprising things which surround us and which our senses record mechanically
Silence moves faster when it's going backward
Poets don't draw. They unravel their handwriting and then tie it up again, but differently
Poetry is indispensable - if I only knew what for
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
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On Anger: "For every minute you remain angry, you give up sixty seconds of peace of mind."
Essays
Essays
On Destiny: "Our destiny exercises its influence over us even when, as yet, we have not learned its nature: it is our future that lays down the law of our today."
Human, All Too Human
Human, All Too Human
On Friendship: "A crowd is not company; and faces are but a gallery of pictures; and talk but a tinkling cymbal, where there is no love."
Essays
Essays