Thought must be hidden in the verse like nutritional virtue in a fruit. — Paul Valery Copy Share Image
The power of verse stems from an indefinable harmony between when it says and what it is. — Paul Valery Copy Share Image
If what has happened in the one person were communicated directly to the other, all art would collapse, all the effects of… — Paul Valery Copy Share Image
A poet's work consists less in seeking words for his ideas than in seeking ideas for his words and predominant rhythms. — Paul Valery Copy Share Image
A man is a poet if difficulties inherent in his art provide him with ideas; he is not a poet if they… — Paul Valery Copy Share Image
“To summarize a poem or put it into prose is quite simply to misunderstand the essence of an art.” — Paul Valéry Copy Share Image
Politics is the art of preventing people from taking part in affairs which properly concern them. — Paul Valery Copy Share Image
Politics is the art of preventing people from sticking their noses in things that are properly their business. — Paul Valery Copy Share Image
Politics is the art of preventing people from busying themselves with what is their own business. — Paul Valery Copy Share Image
The very object of an art, the principle of its artifice, is precisely to impart the impression of an ideal state in… — Paul Valery Copy Share Image
Collect all the facts that can be collected about the life of Racine and you will never learn from them the art… — Paul Valery Copy Share Image
Freedom of mind and mind itself have been most fully developed in regions where trade developed at the same time. In all… — Paul Valery Copy Share Image
Science is feasible when the variables are few and can be enumerated; when their combinations are distinct and clear. We are tending… — Paul Valery Copy Share Image
“Our fine arts were developed, their types and uses were established, in times very different from the present, by men whose power… — Paul Valéry Copy Share Image
In the eyes of those lovers of perfection, a work is never finished a word that for them has no sense but abandoned; and… — Paul Valery Copy Share
“O Socrates, the universe cannot for one instant endure to be only what it is. It is strange to think that that which is… — Paul Valéry Copy Share
It seems to me that the soul, when alone with itself and speaking to itself, uses only a small number of words, none of… — Paul Valery Copy Share
“I am now going to make an admission. I confess, I agree, that all these good people who protested, who laughed, who did not… — Paul Valery Copy Share
“Degas is one of the very few painters who have given the floor its true importance.” — Paul Valéry Copy Share
Politics is the art of preventing people from busying themselves with what is their own business. — Paul Valery Copy Share
God created man and, finding him not sufficiently alone, gave him a companion to make him feel his solitude more keenly. — Paul Valery Copy Share
The most ridiculous were those who, on their own authority, made themselves the judges and justices of the tribe. They seemed never to suspect… — Paul Valery Copy Share
To be sincere means to be the same person when one is with oneself; that is to say, alone - but that is all… — Paul Valery Copy Share
Interruption, incoherence, surprise are the ordinary conditions of our life. They have even become real needs for many people, whose minds are no longer… — Paul Valery Copy Share
