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Jean Cocteau Quotes

1889–1963 France

Jean Maurice Eugène Clément Cocteau (5 July 1889 – 11 October 1963) was a French poet, novelist, painter, and filmmaker.

France
Academics
Film directors
Novelists
Painters

Also known as: Cocteau, Jean

Random Jean Cocteau quote

87 quotes

Do not close the circle. Leave it open. Descartes closes the circle. Pascal leaves it open. Rousseau's triumph over the encyclopedists is to have left his circle open when they closed theirs.

Diary of an Unknown (1988)

Hasten slowly. Run faster than beauty.

Diary of an Unknown (1988)

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, they finish by loading honors on your head.

Moments of Clarity (2002)

Life is a horizontal fall.

Opium (1929)

Art is science made clear.

Le Coq et l’Arlequin (1918)

The reward of art is not fame or success but intoxication: that is why so many bad artists are unable to give it up.

Misattributed

Originality consists in trying to be like everybody else — and failing.

Misattributed

Attribution

Quotes and notes from Wikiquote: Jean Cocteau (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0.