“The greatest masterpiece in literature is only a dictionary out of order.”

—  Jean Cocteau

Source: Le Potomak : Précédé d'un Prospectus 1916

Last update June 3, 2021. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "The greatest masterpiece in literature is only a dictionary out of order." by Jean Cocteau?
Jean Cocteau photo
Jean Cocteau 123
French poet, novelist, dramatist, designer, boxing manager … 1889–1963

Related quotes

“Facts are not science — as the dictionary is not literature.”

Martin H. Fischer (1879–1962) American university teacher (1879-1962)

Fischerisms (1944)

Italo Calvino photo

“SPAN ID=All_that_we> All that we have to do is to pick them out of the dictionary and string them in the right order…. </SPAN”

Colin Cherry (1914–1979) British scientist

Source: On Human Communication (1957), Language: Science and Aesthetics, p.68

Tulsidas photo

“The Ramacharitamanas undoubtedly is the great poem worthy to rank among the great classical masterpieces of world literature.”

Tulsidas (1532–1623) Hindu poet-saint

Source: On Tulsidas’s epic Ramacharritamanas, P.E.Keay in "A Garden of Deeds: Ramacharitmanas, a Message of Human Ethics", p. 35

Voltaire photo

“The ancient Romans built their greatest masterpieces of architecture for wild beasts to fight in.”

Voltaire (1694–1778) French writer, historian, and philosopher

Les anciens Romains élevaient des prodiges d'architecture pour faire combattre des bêtes.
Letter addressed to "un premier commis" [name unknown] (20 June 1733), from Oeuvres Complètes de Voltaire: Correspondance [Garnier frères, Paris, 1880], vol. I, letter # 343 (p. 354)
Citas

Prevale photo

“For a true mother, you will be and always remain her greatest masterpiece of life.”

Prevale (1983) Italian DJ and producer

Original: Per una vera madre, sarai e rimarrai sempre il suo più grande capolavoro della vita.
Source: prevale.net

George Sand photo

“Masterpieces are only lucky attempts.”

George Sand (1804–1876) French novelist and memoirist; pseudonym of Lucile Aurore Dupin

Les chefs-d'oeuvre ne sont jamais que des tentatives heureuses.
François le Champi, Introduction; Jane Minot Sedgwick (trans.) François the Waif (New York: H. M. Caldwell, 1894) p. 24

Gao Xingjian photo
Samuel Butler photo

Related topics