Everything one does in life, even love, occurs in an express train racing toward death. To smoke opium is to get out of the train while it is still moving. It is to concern oneself with something other than life or death.
JEAN COCTEAUWealth is an inborn attitude of mind, like poverty. The pauper who has made his pile may flaunt his spoils, but cannot wear them plausibly.
More Jean Cocteau Quotes
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The joy of the young is to disobey.
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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.
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Beauty cannot be recognized with a cursory glance.
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Art is a marriage of the conscious and the unconscious.
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The public is never pleased with what we do, wanting always a copy of what we have done.
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After the writer’s death, reading his journal is like receiving a long letter.
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I have seafoam in my veins, I understand the language of waves.
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Poetry is a religion with no hope.
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Elegance ceases to exist when it is noticed.
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The speed of a runaway horse counts for nothing.
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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.
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The ability to laugh heartily is the sign of a healthy soul.
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Every day in the mirror I watch death at work.
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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.
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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