Quote

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

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
Art
Imagery
Else
Symbolic
Anything
Consists
Able
Measure
Speaking
Uncover
Relationships
Symbolism
Merely
Transcendental
Ultimate
Politeness

More quotes by Jean Cocteau

Image
There's no such thing as love only proof of love.
Jean Cocteau
Image
The artist must know how far to go too far.
Jean Cocteau
Image
See your disappointments as good fortune. One plan's deflation is another's inflation.
Jean Cocteau
Image
The public is never pleased with what we do, wanting always a copy of what we have done.
Jean Cocteau
Image
Art is science made flesh.
Jean Cocteau
Image
Poetry is a religion without hope, but its martyrs guarantee the eternal truth of its dogma.
Jean Cocteau
Image
Appreciation of art is a moral erection, otherwise mere dilettantism.
Jean Cocteau
Image
May the devil himself splatter you with dung.
Jean Cocteau
Image
The prettiest dresses are worn to be taken off.
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
What is style? For many people, a very complicated way of saying very simple things. According to us, a very simple way of saying very complicated things.
Jean Cocteau
Image
Take a commonplace, clean it and polish it, light it so that it produces the same effect of youth and freshness and originality and spontaneity as it did originally, and you have done a poet's job. The rest is literature.
Jean Cocteau
Image
one should always talk well about oneself! The word spreads around and in the end, noone remembers where it started
Jean Cocteau
Image
Celebrity: I picture myself as a marble bust with legs to run everywhere.
Jean Cocteau
Image
Anything of any importance cannot help but be unrecognizable, since it bears no resemblance to anything already known.
Jean Cocteau
Image
Understand that some of your enemies are amongst your best friends.
Jean Cocteau
Image
Whatever the world condemns you for, make it your own. It is yourself.
Jean Cocteau
Image
I am burning myself up and will always do so.
Jean Cocteau
Image
Art is not a pastime but a priesthood.
Jean Cocteau
Image
Poetry, being elegance itself, cannot hope to achieve visibility... It insists on living its own life.
Jean Cocteau