“There is no theory that is not a fragment, carefully prepared, of some autobiography.” — Paul Valery Autobiography Copy Share Image
“We see now that the abyss of history is deep enough to hold us all.” — Paul Valéry Abyss 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
Man is only man at the surface. Remove the skin, dissect, and immediately you come to machinery. — Paul Valery 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
“The deeper education consists in unlearning one's first education.” — Paul Valéry Education Copy Share Image
In poetry everything which must be said is almost impossible to say well. — Paul Valery Copy Share Image
It seems to me that the soul, when alone with itself and speaking to itself, uses only a small number of words,… — Paul Valery Copy Share Image
History justifies whatever we want it to. It teaches absolutely nothing, for it contains everything and gives examples of everything. — Paul Valery 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
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
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
What Degas called 'a way of seeing' must consequently bear a wide enough interpretation to include way of being, power, knowledge, and… — Paul Valery Artist Copy Share Image
In the physical world, one cannot increase the size or quantity of anything without changing its quality. Similar figures exist only in… — Paul Valery Copy Share Image
Serious people have few ideas. People with ideas are never serious. — Paul Valery Ideas Copy Share Image
“Each of them, all unknowing, fairly gives its due to each chance of life, to each germ of death within itself.” — Paul Valéry Copy Share Image
“A simple statement is bound to be untrue. One that is not simple cannot be utilized.” — Paul Valéry Complexity Copy Share Image
The universe is built on a plan the profound symmetry of which is somehow present in the inner structure of our intellect. — Paul Valery Copy Share Image
The advantage of the incomprehensible is that it never loses its freshness. — Paul Valery Advantage Copy Share Image
There is a difference if we see something with a pencil in our hand or without one. — Paul Valery Difference Copy Share Image
“I know nothing more stupid and indeed vulgar than wanting to be right.” — Paul Valéry 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
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
“But hope is only man's mistrust of the clear foresight of his mind.” — Paul Valéry Hope 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
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
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
“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
Politics is the art of preventing people from taking part in affairs which properly concern them. — Paul Valery Art Copy Share Image
A man's true secrets are more secret to himself than they are to others. — Paul Valery Secret Copy Share Image
Thought must be hidden in the verse like nutritional virtue in a fruit. — Paul Valery Art Copy Share Image
