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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

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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
Require
Eyes
Illegal
Taken
Realization
Dark
Instinct
Eye
Angel
Realizations
Learn
Follow
Unawares
Might
Close
Truest
Self
Instincts
Men
Risk

More quotes by Jean Cocteau

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At all costs the true world of childhood must prevail, must be restored that world whose momentous, heroic, mysterious quality is fed on airy nothings, whose substance is so ill-fitted to withstand the brutal touch of adult inquisition.
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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
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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.
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I feel myself inhabited by a force or being -- very little known to me. It gives the orders I follow.
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A prig always finds a last refuge in responsibility.
Jean Cocteau
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Mirrors should think longer before they reflect.
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Art is not a pastime but a priesthood.
Jean Cocteau
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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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Fight any instinct to be humorless, for humorlessness is the worst of all absurdities.
Jean Cocteau
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Tact in audacity is knowing how far you can go without going too far.
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A film is a petrified fountain of thought.
Jean Cocteau
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The smell of opium is the least stupid smell in the world.
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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
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Art is science made flesh.
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In Paris, everybody wants to be an actor nobody is content to be a spectator.
Jean Cocteau
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And now I have to confess the unpardonable and the scandalous. I am a happy man. And I am going to tell you the secret of my happiness. It is quite simple. I love mankind. I love love. I hate hate. I try to understand and accept.
Jean Cocteau
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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
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What uniform can I wear to hide my heavy heart? It is too heavy. It will always show.
Jean Cocteau
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You have comfort. You don't have luxury. And don't tell me that money plays a part. The luxury I advocate has nothing to do with money. It cannot be bought. It is the reward of those who have NO Fear or Discomfort.
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Stupidity is always astounding, no matter how often one encounters it.
Jean Cocteau