"All good music resembles something. Good music stirs by its mysterious resemblance to the objects and feelings which motivated it."

Jean Cocteau Literature See all quotes by Jean Cocteau →

React to this quote

More by Jean Cocteau

See all

“Art is science made clear.”

“Look out! Be on your guard, because alone of all the arts, music moves all around you.”

“Expect neither reward nor beatitude. Return noble waves for ignoble.”

“Do as the beautiful woman: see to your figure and your petticoats. Though, of course, I am not speaking literally.”

“Poetry is indispensable — if I only knew what for.”

“Such is the role of poetry. It unveils, in the strict sense of the word. It lays bare, under a light which shakes off torpor, the surprising things which surround us and which our senses record mechanically.”

Resonant Thoughts

"We of the great modern democracies must strive unceasingly to make our several countries lands in which a poor man who works hard can live comfortably and honestly, and in which a rich man cannot live…"

— Theodore Roosevelt

Politics1858–1919

#money

"Einstein's theory of relativity has advanced our ideas of the structure of the cosmos a step further. It is as if a wall which separated us from Truth has collapsed. Wider expanses and greater depths …"

— Hermann Weyl

Mathematics1885–1955

#knowledge

"It had to be something real bad. I think he stole music online."

— James Hetfield

Music1963

#mind

"Such is my outlook. I look forward to a time when man shall progress upon something worthier and higher than his stomach, when there will be a finer incentive to impel men to action than the incentive…"

— Jack London

Literature1905–1966

#faith