---
title: "1 Poetry Simply Quotes By Paul Valery"
description: "1 Poetry Simply quotes by Paul Valery. Plus more from Paul Valery and more Poetry Simply sayings from other authors."
image: "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/28e/paul-valery-1464_active_poetry-is-simply-literature-reduced-to-t_2029119.jpg"
---

> [Poetry is simply literature reduced to the essence of its active principle. It is purged of idols of every kind, of realistic illusions, of any conceivable equivocation between the language of "truth" and the language of "creation.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/paul-valery/poetry-is-simply-literature-reduced-to-the-essence-of-its-active/)

[Paul Valery](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/paul-valery/)

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/28e/paul-valery-1464_active_poetry-is-simply-literature-reduced-to-t_2029119.jpg)

## More by Paul Valery

> [In the eyes of those lovers of perfection, a work is never finished a word that for them has no sense but abandoned; and…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/paul-valery/in-the-eyes-of-those-lovers-of-perfection-a-work-is-never-finished-a/)

[Paul Valery](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/paul-valery/)

> [“O Socrates, the universe cannot for one instant endure to be only what it is. It is strange to think that that which is…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/paul-valery/o-socrates-the-universe-cannot-for-one-instant-endure-to-be-only-what/)

[Paul Valéry](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/paul-valery/)

> [We civilizations now know ourselves mortal.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/paul-valery/we-civilizations-now-know-ourselves-mortal/)

[Paul Valery](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/paul-valery/)

> [It seems to me that the soul, when alone with itself and speaking to itself, uses only a small number of words, none of…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/paul-valery/it-seems-to-me-that-the-soul-when-alone-with-itself-and-speaking-to/)

[Paul Valery](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/paul-valery/)

> [Serious people have few ideas. People with ideas are never serious.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/paul-valery/serious-people-have-few-ideas-people-with-ideas-are-never-serious/)

[Paul Valery](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/paul-valery/)

> [“I am now going to make an admission. I confess, I agree, that all these good people who protested, who laughed, who did not…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/paul-valery/i-am-now-going-to-make-an-admission-i-confess-i-agree-that-all-these/)

[Paul Valery](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/paul-valery/)

> [“Degas is one of the very few painters who have given the floor its true importance.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/paul-valery/degas-is-one-of-the-very-few-painters-who-have-given-the-floor-its/)

[Paul Valéry](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/paul-valery/)

> [Politics is the art of preventing people from busying themselves with what is their own business.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/paul-valery/politics-is-the-art-of-preventing-people-from-busying-themselves-with/)

[Paul Valery](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/paul-valery/)

> [God created man and, finding him not sufficiently alone, gave him a companion to make him feel his solitude more keenly.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/paul-valery/god-created-man-and-finding-him-not-sufficiently-alone-gave-him-a/)

[Paul Valery](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/paul-valery/)

> [The most ridiculous were those who, on their own authority, made themselves the judges and justices of the tribe. They seemed never to suspect…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/paul-valery/the-most-ridiculous-were-those-who-on-their-own-authority-made/)

[Paul Valery](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/paul-valery/)

> [The folly of mistaking oneself for an oracle is built right into us.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/paul-valery/the-folly-of-mistaking-oneself-for-an-oracle-is-built-right-into-us/)

[Paul Valery](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/paul-valery/)

> [Thought must be hidden in the verse like nutritional virtue in a fruit.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/paul-valery/thought-must-be-hidden-in-the-verse-like-nutritional-virtue-in-a-fruit/)

[Paul Valery](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/paul-valery/)

> [To be sincere means to be the same person when one is with oneself; that is to say, alone - but that is all…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/paul-valery/to-be-sincere-means-to-be-the-same-person-when-one-is-with-oneself/)

[Paul Valery](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/paul-valery/)

> [No work of art is ever completed, it is only abandoned.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/paul-valery/no-work-of-art-is-ever-completed-it-is-only-abandoned/)

[Paul Valery](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/paul-valery/)

> [Interruption, incoherence, surprise are the ordinary conditions of our life. They have even become real needs for many people, whose minds are no longer…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/paul-valery/interruption-incoherence-surprise-are-the-ordinary-conditions-of-our/)

[Paul Valery](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/paul-valery/)

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