Opium Quotes

“Living is a horizontal fall.”
― Jean Cocteau, Opium: The Illustrated Diary of His Cure

“Lack of manners is the sign of a hero.”
― Jean Cocteau, Opium: The Illustrated Diary of His Cure

“Without opium, plans, marriages and journeys appear to me just as foolish as if someone falling out of a window were to hope to make friends with the occupants of the room before which he passes.”
― Jean Cocteau, Opium: The Illustrated Diary of His Cure

“We are in a period of such individualism that one no longer speaks of disciples; one speaks of thieves.”
― Jean Cocteau, Opium: The Illustrated Diary of His Cure

“In two weeks, despite these notes, I shall no longer believe in what I am experiencing now. One must leave behind a trace of this journey which memory forgets. One must, when this is impossible, write or draw without responding to the romantic solicitations of pain, without enjoying suffering like music, tieing a pen to one's foot if need be, helping the doctors who can learn nothing from laziness.”
― Jean Cocteau, Opium: The Illustrated Diary of His Cure

“Everything one does in life, even love, occurs in an express train racing toward death. To smoke opium is to get out of the train while it is still moving. It is to concern oneself with something other than life or death.”
― Jean Cocteau, Opium: The Illustrated Diary of His Cure

“Η αισθητική της αποτυχίας είναι η μόνη αυθεντική. Εκείνος που δεν κατανοεί τη αποτυχία είναι χαμένος.
Η σπουδαιότητα της αποτυχίας είναι θεμελιώδης. Δε μιλώ για το αντικείμενο της αποτυχίας. Αν δεν έχει συλλάβει κανείς αυτό το μυστικό, αυτή την αισθητική, αυτή την ηθική της αποτυχίας, δεν έχει καταλάβει τίποτα και η δόξα παραμένει κενή.”
― Jean Cocteau, Opium: The Illustrated Diary of His Cure