All archives
Previous Issue (4 July 2011) | Current month | Next Issue (8 July 2011)
Quotes of the Day for 5 July 2011 – Jean Cocteau
Jean Cocteau was born at Maisons-Laffitte, France on this day in 1889 into a prominent Parisian family that exposed him to music, opera, painting, and literature at an early age. He considered himself a poet, publishing his first volume at nineteen. He drove a Red Cross ambulance during WW I and in addition to twenty volumes of poems he wrote five novels, twenty plays, six screenplays, the dialogue for three more films, and directed ten movies.
You will find an expanded profile, photo, additional biographical links, and all quotes from this author on the author's Notable Quotable page.
The quotes:
Art produces ugly things which frequently become beautiful with time. Fashion, on the other hand, produces beautiful things which always become ugly with time.
The extreme limit of wisdom — that is what the public calls madness.
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.
The greatest masterpiece in literature is only a dictionary out of order.
Respect movements, flee schools.
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.
All from Jean Cocteau, 1889 - 1963
Do you see an error on this page? A typo, a character that is messed up, a misattribution? Please let us know!
