Be a constant outrage to modesty There is nothing to fear: modesty is exercised only among the blind. Jean Cocteau More Quotes by Jean Cocteau More Quotes From Jean Cocteau Poetry is an ethic. By ethic I mean a secret code of behavior, a discipline constructed and conducted according to the capabilities of a man who rejects the falsifications of the categorical imperative. Jean Cocteau disciplinemenmean To be audacious with tact, you have to know to what point you can go too far. Jean Cocteau audacioustactmanners Lack of manners is the sign of a hero. Jean Cocteau heromanners Vivre est une chute horizontale. Life is a horizontal fall. Jean Cocteau horizontallife-isfall Good music resembles something. It resembles the composer. Jean Cocteau composer In two weeks, despite these notes, I shall no longer believe in what I am experiencing now. One must leave behind a trace of this journey which memory forgets. One must, when this is impossible, write or draw without responding to the romantic solicitations of pain, without enjoying suffering like music, tieing a pen to one's foot if need be, helping the doctors who can learn nothing from laziness. Jean Cocteau painmemoriesbelieve Stupidity is always astounding, no matter how often one encounters it. Jean Cocteau encountersstupiditymatter The public only takes up yesterday as a stick to beat today. Jean Cocteau criticismyesterdaytoday Without opium, plans, marriages and journeys appear to me just as foolish as if someone falling out of a window were to hope to make friends with the occupants of the room before which he passes. Jean Cocteau journeyroomsfall I have not looked at a newspaper in twenty years; if one is brought into the room, I flee. This is not because I am indifferent but because one cannot follow every road. Jean Cocteau twentiesroomsyears One must not mistake majority for truth. Jean Cocteau majoritymistake Elegance ceases to exist when it is noticed. Jean Cocteau ceaseelegance Expect neither reward nor beatitude. Return noble waves for ignoble. Jean Cocteau rewardsreturnnoble If it has to choose who is to be crucified, the crowd will always save Barabbas. Jean Cocteau crucifixioncrucifixion-of-christcrowds 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 realizingmercyfriendship People seek escape in myth by any means at their disposal, including drugs, alcohol, meditation, and lies. Jean Cocteau meanlyingpeople The artist must know how far to go too far. Jean Cocteau know-howartistknows I want the kind of readers who remain children at any cost. I can tell them at a glance: loyalty to that first enchantment guards better than any cosmetic; than any diet, against the insults of age. But alas for such readers, who would huddle safe and sound in the asylum of their credulous enchantment as if in the womb-our enervating century offends them by its chaos, its fidgets of light and space, the host of its excuses for dividing , for rending oneself from others and from oneself. Jean Cocteau loyaltylightchildren The only way to kill death is through photography. Jean Cocteau photographyway The ear disapproves but tolerates certain musical pieces; transfer them into the domain of our nose, and we will be forced to flee. Jean Cocteau piecesmusicalnoses
