#w

Emotion resulting from a work of art is only of value when it is not obtained by sentimental blackmail. ↗

— Jean Cocteau

#emotion #obtained #only #resulting #sentimental

I just wrote what I felt like writing since they seemed to sell. ↗

— Jack Vance

#i #just #like #seemed #sell

Here I am trying to live, or rather, I am trying to teach the death within me how to live. ↗

— Jean Cocteau

#death #here #how #i #i am

We must believe in luck. For how else can we explain the success of those we don't like? ↗

— Jean Cocteau

#else #explain #how #like #luck

I have lost my seven best friends, which is to say God has had mercy on me seven times without realizing it. He lent a friendship, took it from me, sent me another. ↗

— Jean Cocteau

#best #friends #friendship #god #had

The day of my birth, my death began its walk. It is walking toward me, without hurrying. ↗

— Jean Cocteau

#birth #day #death #hurrying #me

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, the finish by loading honors on your head. ↗

— Jean Cocteau

#beat #begins #fails #finish #first

There is always a period when a man with a beard shaves it off. This period does not last. He returns headlong to his beard. ↗

— Jean Cocteau

#beard #does #headlong #his #last

When a work appears to be ahead of its time, it is only the time that is behind the work. ↗

— Jean Cocteau

#appears #behind #only #time #work

You've never seen death? Look in the mirror every day and you will see it like bees working in a glass hive. ↗

— Jean Cocteau

#day #death #every #every day #glass