Paul Valery
Paul Valery
Ambroise-Paul-Toussaint-Jules Valérywas a French poet, essayist, and philosopher. In addition to his poetry and fiction, his interests included aphorisms on art, history, letters, music, and current events. Valéry was nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature in 12 different years...
NationalityFrench
ProfessionPoet
Date of Birth30 October 1871
CountryFrance
Paul Valery quotes about
consumed energy power ten ultimate uses
The ultimate ""computer,"" our own brain, uses only ten watts of power -- one-tenth the energy consumed by a hundred-watt bulb.
dream memories people
History is the most dangerous product which the chemistry of the mind has concocted. Its properties are well known. It produces dreams and drunkenness. It fills people with false memories, exaggerates their reactions, exacerbates old grievances, torments them in their repose, and encourages either a delirium of grandeur or a delusion of persecution. It makes whole nations bitter, arrogant, insufferable and vainglorious.
time future trouble
The trouble with our times is that the future is not what it used to be.
dream silence triumph
Breath, dreams, silence, invincible calm, you triumph.
being-yourself being-single men
A man who is 'of sound mind' is one who keeps the inner madman under lock and key.
time thinking
At times I think and at times I am.
failure succeed transformation
Whatever we succeed in doing is a transformation of something we have failed to do. Thus, when we fail, it is only because we have given up.
mistake believe errors
Nothing is more natural than mutual misunderstanding; the contrary is always surprising. I believe that one never agrees on anything except by mistake, and that all harmony among human beings is the happy fruit of an error.
psychics ironic empowerment
That which has always been accepted by everyone, everywhere, is almost certain to be false.
reign doe conscience
Conscience reigns but it does not govern.
motive settlement treaties
The only treaties that ought to count are those which would effect a settlement between ulterior motives.
abandoned finished
Poems are never finished - just abandoned
writing numbers unexpected
To write regular verses destroys an infinite number of fine possibilities, but at the same time it suggests a multitude of distant and totally unexpected thoughts.
avant-garde things-change
Everything changes but the avant-garde.