Jean Cocteau Quotes

No man loses ever on a lower level by magnanimity on a higher.

True virtue would never liken its rewards to points on a loyalty card, not because it is its own reward, but because it is not something we should practice to accrue future benefits.

I want my music to feel like I'm giving something to someone else and not that I'm expecting something back.

For if you love those who love you, what reward have you? Do not even the tax collectors do the same?

My mom was a saint. She taught me to be terminally nice.

If Mother Theresa went to Atlantic City, I don't think she'd start playing Blackjack.

All sympathy not consistent with acknowledged virtue is but disguised selfishness.

If you do a good deed, don't expect anything back - the other person can still be a complete git.

I give you something, but I don't want you to give me something tomorrow. When I give something, it's because I want to give it.

He was a patient man, a kind man, a man who cared about animals and human beings, all qualities not to be devalued, but James Herriot was not a saint. I tried so hard to play against some of the scripts that implied that he was a saint, but I don't think I was always altogether successful.

Don't undo a brave and noble deed. Don't rob yourself of your own virtue.

Noble be man, helpful and good!

The more you do for others without expectation of return, the more you'll get back from the most unexpected sources.

Do good to another man, even when they do not do you good; another will certainly do you good. if there is still shame and fear in one's heart to do good, there will certainly be no progress at all.

Gifts are not favors. If you expect something in return, it's not a gift.

If I want to be a loving, generous, giving person, I'm not going to test the waters. I'm simply going to be a loving, generous, giving person.

It's not our job to play judge and jury, to determine who is worthy of our kindness and who is not. We just need to be kind, unconditionally and without ulterior motive, even - or rather, especially - when we'd prefer not to be.

I have learned more about love, selflessness and human understanding from the people I have met in this great adventure in the world of AIDS than I ever did in the cutthroat, competitive world in which I spent my life.

If you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? For even sinners love those who love them. And if you do good to those who do good to you, what credit is that to you? For even sinners do the same.

Each person has inside a basic decency and goodness. If he listens to it and acts on it, he is giving a great deal of what it is the world needs most. It is not complicated but it takes courage. It takes courage for a person to listen to his own goodness and act on it.

You can't beg from people what they're not willing to give you.

Humanity is the virtue of a woman, generosity that of a man.

My whole life I've been an over-giver. My general operating policy has always been, 'If it belongs to me, don't worry: You can have it!'

Virtues, like viruses, have their seasons of contagion. When catastrophe strikes, generosity spikes like a fever. Courage spreads in the face of tyranny.

If you give what can be taken, you are not really giving. Take what you are given, not what you want to be given. Give what cannot be taken.