Skip to content
quotesby

About this quote

What does it mean?
Some things are tolerable in one sense but intolerable in another.
In plain terms
You might like a song but would run if it smelled bad.
What can you take from it?
Context and senses change how we accept things.

Where it applies

  • critique
  • daily life
  • design

Putting it to work

  • product design
  • sensory evaluation
  • art review

Questions to consider

  • How do your senses limit your taste?
  • Is tolerance relative?

Another view

Sometimes things work across different senses.

More from Jean Cocteau

  1. A film is a petrified fountain of thought.

    Permalink to quote #22
  2. You've never seen death? Look in the mirror every day and you will see it like bees working in a glass hive.

    Permalink to quote #24
  3. Art produces ugly things which frequently become more beautiful with time. Fashion, on the other hand, produces beautiful things which always become ugly with …

    Permalink to quote #21

Related quotes

  1. The paintings of Francis Bacon to my eye are very beautiful. The paintings of Bosch or Goya are to my eye very beautiful. I've also stood in front of those sam…

    Clive BarkerClive Barker quote #12
  2. Imagine my glimpses at that clock as the gropings of a spiritual eye which seeks to adjust its vision to an exact focus. The moment the focus is reached the ob…

    James JoyceJames Joyce quote #56
  3. I don't think our show's actually rude.

    Trinny WoodallTrinny Woodall quote #1