Quote

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

Jean Cocteau

Change background

T
T
T

Change font

TAGS & TOPICS

Jean Cocteau
Age: 74 †
Born: 1889
Born: July 5
Died: 1963
Died: October 11
Actor
Composer
Designer
Film Director
Illustrator
Librettist
Novelist
Painter
Photographer
Playwright
Poet
Postage Stamp Designer
Prosaist
Clément Eugène Jean Pierre Cocteau
Zhan Kokto
Eugène Jean Maurice Cocteau
Eugene Jean Maurice Cocteau
Jean Cocteau
Admired
Misunderstood
Poetic
Tragedy
Poet
Worst

More quotes by Jean Cocteau

Image
A man's truest self realizations might require him, above all, to learn to close his eyes: to let himself be taken unawares, to follow his dark angel, to risk his illegal instincts.
Jean Cocteau
Image
There's no such thing as love only proof of love.
Jean Cocteau
Image
In exiling myself I am not exiling a monster, but a man whom society will not allow to live, since it considers one of the mysterious cogs in God's masterpiece to be a mistake.
Jean Cocteau
Image
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
Image
My only politics have been friendship.
Jean Cocteau
Image
Listen carefully to first criticisms made of your work. Note just what it is about your work that critics don't like - then cultivate it. That's the only part of your work that's individual and worth keeping.
Jean Cocteau
Image
The greatest masterpiece in literature is only a dictionary out of order.
Jean Cocteau
Image
Mirrors should reflect a little before throwing back images.
Jean Cocteau
Image
It is not inspiration it is expiration.
Jean Cocteau
Image
The poet never asks for admiration he wants to be believed.
Jean Cocteau
Image
Never do what a specialist can do better. Discover your own specialty. Do not despair if your specialty appears to be more delicate, a lesser thing. Make up in finesse what you lose in force.
Jean Cocteau
Image
The course of a river is almost always disapproved of by the source.
Jean Cocteau
Image
Look out! Be on your guard, because alone of all the arts, music moves all around you.
Jean Cocteau
Image
Compromise yourself. Obscure your own trail.
Jean Cocteau
Image
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
Image
I succeeded in bewitching a fair number and in being intoxicated with my mistakes.
Jean Cocteau
Image
The joy of the young is to disobey
Jean Cocteau
Image
Children and lunatics cut the Gordian knot which the poet spends his life patiently trying to untie.
Jean Cocteau
Image
True realism consists in revealing the surprising things which habit keeps covered and prevents us from seeing.
Jean Cocteau
Image
Appreciation of art is a moral erection, otherwise mere dilettantism.
Jean Cocteau