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About this quote

What does it mean?
Art that seems ahead of its time is actually ahead of a lagging society.
In plain terms
When work is ahead, the world is behind, not the work.
What can you take from it?
Avant-garde work exposes societal lag.

Where it applies

  • creating new work
  • feeling ahead of peers
  • artistic innovation

Putting it to work

  • persisting despite resistance
  • educating audiences

Questions to consider

  • Is the world ready for your ideas?
  • How do you spot lag?

Another view

Sometimes work is just bad, not ahead of time.

More from Jean Cocteau

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  2. What the public criticizes in you, cultivate. It is you.

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  3. 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…

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