“To summarize a poem or put it into prose is quite simply to misunderstand the essence of an art.” — Paul Valéry Art Copy Share Image
“What soul would hesitate to turn the universe upside down in order to be a little more itself?” — Paul Valéry Copy Share Image
The trouble with our times is that the future is not what it used to be. — Paul Valery Future Copy Share Image
Fidelity to meaning alone in translation is a kind of betrayal. — Paul Valery Betrayal Copy Share Image
The future, like everything else, is no longer quite what it used to be. — Paul Valery Future Copy Share Image
Politics is the art of preventing people from taking part in affairs which properly concern them. — Paul Valery Art Copy Share Image
It is a sign of the times, and not a very good sign, that these days it is necessary and not only… — Paul Valery Fate Copy Share Image
Order always weighs on the individual. Disorder makes him wish for the police or for death. These are two extreme circumstances in… — Paul Valery Copy Share Image
“The stranger’s way of looking at things, the eye of a man who does not recognize , who is beyond this world,… — Paul Valéry Stranger Copy Share Image
Whatever we succeed in doing is a transformation of something we have failed to do. Thus, when we fail, it is only… — Paul Valery Change Copy Share Image
Man's great misfortune is that he has no organ, no kind of eyelid or brake, to mask or block a thought, or… — Paul Valery Copy Share Image
An attitude of permanent indignation signifies great mental poverty. Politics compels it votaries to take that line and you can see their… — Paul Valery Attitude Copy Share Image
To write regular verses destroys an infinite number of fine possibilities, but at the same time it suggests a multitude of distant… — Paul Valery Copy Share Image
The world acquires value only through its extremes and endures only through moderation; extremists make the world great, the moderates give it… — Paul Valery Copy Share Image
“The confused murmur of his nights began to rise, expected but not familiar” — Paul Valéry Copy Share Image
God made everything out of nothing, but the nothingness shows through. — Paul Valery God Copy Share Image
“Degas is one of the very few painters who have given the floor its true importance.” — Paul Valéry Artist Copy Share Image
A man's true secrets are more secret to himself than they are to others. — Paul Valery Secret Copy Share Image
Talent without genius isn't much, but genius without talent is nothing whatsoever. — Paul Valery Genius Copy Share Image
Thought must be hidden in the verse like nutritional virtue in a fruit. — Paul Valery Art Copy Share Image
My hand feels touched as well as it touches; reality says this, and nothing more. — Paul Valery Copy Share Image
The only truths which are universal are those gross enough to be thought so. — Paul Valery Copy Share Image
An intelligent woman is a woman with whom one can be as stupid as one wants. — 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 Art Copy Share Image
“Le vent se lève, il faut tantrer de vivre = El viento se levanta, hay que intentar vivir” — Paul Valéry Amor Copy Share Image
“I would hear the song of the columns and visualize in the pure sky the monument of a melody.” — Paul Valéry Copy Share Image
What is simple is wrong, and what is complicated cannot be understood. — Paul Valery Copy Share Image
“But hope is only man's mistrust of the clear foresight of his mind.” — Paul Valéry Hope Copy Share Image
Long years must pass before the truths we have made for ourselves become our very flesh. — Paul Valery Copy Share Image
If disorder is the rule with you, you will be penalized for installing order. — Paul Valery Copy Share Image
The power of verse stems from an indefinable harmony between when it says and what it is. — Paul Valery Art Copy Share Image
What golden hour of life, what glittering moment will ever equal the pain its loss can cause? — Paul Valery Copy Share Image
“We see now that the abyss of history is deep enough to hold us all.” — Paul Valéry Abyss Copy Share Image
“There is no theory that is not a fragment, carefully prepared, of some autobiography.” — Paul Valery Autobiography Copy Share Image
The dog has made man their God, if the dog was an atheist, it would be perfect. — Paul Valery Animal Copy Share Image
Man cannot bear his own portrait. The image of his limits and his own determinacy exasperates him, drives him mad. — Paul Valery Bears Copy Share Image
Politics is the art of preventing people from busying themselves with what is their own business. — Paul Valery Art Copy Share Image
