Jean Cocteau Quotes

113 Sourced Quotes

We shelter an angel within us. We must be the guardians of that angel.

Jean Cocteau
The worst tragedy for a poet is to be admired through being misunderstood.

Jean Cocteau
Mirrors would do well to reflect a little more before sending back images.

Jean Cocteau
The skin of all of us is responsive to gypsy songs and military marches.

Jean Cocteau
A prig always finds a last refuge in responsibility.

Jean Cocteau
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
My method is simple: not to bother about poetry. It must come of its own accord. Merely whispering its name drives it away.

Jean Cocteau
Expect neither reward nor beatitude. Return noble waves for ignoble.

Jean Cocteau
It is difficult to live without opium after having known it because it is difficult, after knowing opium, to take earth seriously. And unless one is a saint, it is difficult to live without taking earth seriously.

Jean Cocteau
Consider metaphysics as an extension of the physical.

Jean Cocteau
Tact in audacity consists in knowing how far we may go too far.

Jean Cocteau
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.

Jean Cocteau
The course of a river is almost always disapproved of by the source.

Jean Cocteau
Every poem is a coat of arms. It must be deciphered. How much blood, how many tears in exchange for these axes, these muzzles, these unicorns, these torches, these towers, these martlets, these seedlings of stars and these fields of blue!

Jean Cocteau
Man seeks to escape himself in myth, and does so by any means at his disposal... unnable to withdraw into himself, he disguises himself. Lies and inaccuracy give him a few moments of comfort, the trifling feeling of escape experienced at a masked ball. He distances himself from that which he feels and sees. He invents. He transfigures. He mythifies. He creates. He fancies himself an artist. He imitates, in his small way, the painters he claims are mad.

Jean Cocteau
The ultimate politeness in art consists of speaking only to those who are able to uncover and measure its relationships. Anything else is symbolic, and symbolism is merely transcendental imagery.

Jean Cocteau
A car can massage organs which no masseur can reach. It is the one remedy for the disorders of the great sympathetic nervous system. … The craving for opium can be endured in a car.

Jean Cocteau
He who is affected by an insult is infected by it.

Jean Cocteau
A true poet does not bother to be poetical. Nor does a nursery gardener scent his roses.

Jean Cocteau
Be a mere assistant to your unconscious. Do only half the work. The rest will do itself.

Jean Cocteau
Poetry is a religion without hope. The poet exhausts himself in its service, knowing that, in the long run, a masterpiece is nothing but the performance of a trained dog on very shaky ground.

Jean Cocteau
Mystery has its own mysteries, and there are gods above gods. We have ours, they have theirs. That is what's known as infinity.

Jean Cocteau
Being tactful in audacity is knowing how far one can go too far.

Jean Cocteau
The poet never asks for admiration; he wants to be believed.

Jean Cocteau
History is a combination of reality and lies. The reality of History becomes a lie. The unreality of the fable becomes the truth.

Jean Cocteau