First find, then search.

Cocteau’s paradoxical imperative reverses the usual order of inquiry: instead of searching in order to find, one must first “find” (an intuition, a form, a guiding image, a solution) and only then “search” (test, refine, justify, and elaborate it). Read this way, the line describes a creative method—especially apt for an artist-poet—where discovery is sparked by instinct or sudden insight, and the subsequent work is the disciplined pursuit of what that insight implies. It also hints at epistemological skepticism: pure searching without a prior orientation can be aimless; meaning emerges when one has a provisional “find” that makes further investigation coherent.