“The extreme limit of wisdom — that’s what the public calls madness.”
Le Coq et l’Arlequin (1918)
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“Expect neither reward nor beatitude. Return noble waves for ignoble.”
Diary of an Unknown (1988)
“We shelter an angel within us. We must be the guardians of that angel.”
Also quoted in Diary of an Unknown (1991) as translated by Jesse Browne.
Le Coq et l’Arlequin (1918)
“After the writer’s death, reading his journal is like receiving a long letter.”
On the journal of Franz Kafka; diary entry (7 June 1953); Past Tense: Diaries Vol. 2 (1988)
“Know that your work speaks only to those on the same wavelength as you.”
Diary of an Unknown (1988)
As quoted by Ned Rorem The Dick Cavett Show (PBS) (6 October 1981)
On his election to Académie Française (1955)
As quoted in An Encyclopedia of Quotations About Music (1981) by Nat Shapiro, p. 130
As quoted in Moments of Clarity (2002) by Thomas L. Jackson, p. 88
“A prig always finds a last refuge in responsibility.”
The Wedding on the Eiffel Tower (1922), Preface
“The Louvre is like the morgue; one goes there to identify one’s friends.”
"Le Secret Professionnel" in Le Rappel à l’Ordre (1922; 1926)
As quoted by Roger Shattuck in "A Native Son of Paris", Jean Cocteau and the French Scene (1984)
Variant: The Louvre is a morgue; you go there to identify your friends.
“Tact in audacity is knowing how far you can go without going too far.”
Variant translation: Tact in audacity consists in knowing how far we may go too far.
Le Coq et l’Arlequin (1918)
“Fight any instinct to be humorless, for humorlessness is the worst of all absurdities.”
Diary of an Unknown (1988)
“Poets don’t draw. They unravel their handwriting and then tie it up again, but differently.”
Dessins (1924), as quoted by Pierre Chanel in "A Thousand Flashes of Genius", Jean Cocteau and the French Scene (1984)
Les Enfants Terribles translation by Rosamond Lehmann (1929)