Paul Valéry quotes - page 5

The artist works out his own formulas; the interest of science lies in the art of making science. (Paul Valéry)
Moreover, he must address himself not to a special and unique sense like hearing, which the musician bends to his will, and which is, besides, the organ par excellence of expectation and attention; but rather to a general and diffused expectation, and he does so through a language which is a very odd mixture of incoherent stimuli. View quote
Paul Valéry
You have neither the patience that weaves long lines nor a feeling for the irregular, nor a sense of the fittest place for a thing ... For you intelligence is not one thing among many. View quote
Paul Valéry
For the musician, before he has begun his work, all is in readiness so that the operation of his creative spirit may find, right from the start, the appropriate matter and means, without any possibility of error. View quote
Paul Valéry
Collect all the facts that can be collected about the life of Racine and you will never learn from them the art of his verse. View quote
Paul Valéry
The deeper education consists in unlearning one's first education. View quote
Paul Valéry
It is therefore reasonable to think that the creations of man are made either with a view to his body, and that is the principle we call utility, or with a view to his soul, and that is what he seeks under the name of beauty. View quote
Paul Valéry
A good poet is of no more use to his country than a good petanque player. View quote
Paul Valéry
Modern man no longer works at what cannot be abbreviated. View quote
Paul Valéry
We have always sought explanations when it was only representations that we could seek to invent. View quote
Paul Valéry
The future, like everything else, is not what it used to be. (Paul Valéry)
Serious-minded people have few ideas. People with ideas are never serious. View quote
Paul Valéry
Collect all the facts that can be collected about the life of Racine and you will never learn from them the art of his verse. All criticism is dominated by the outworn theory that the man is the cause of the work as in the eyes of the law the criminal is the cause of the crime. Far rather are they both the effects. View quote
Paul Valéry
The world acquires value only through its extremes and endures only through moderation extremists make the world great, the moderates give it stability. View quote
Paul Valéry
History is the science of what never happens twice. View quote
Paul Valéry
In the physical world, one cannot increase the size or quantity of anything without changing its quality. Similar figures exist only in pure geometry. View quote
Paul Valéry
Latent in every man is a venom of amazing bitterness, a black resentment something that curses and loathes life, a feeling of being trapped, of having trusted and been fooled, of being the helpless prey of impotent rage, blind surrender, the victim of a savage, ruthless power that gives and takes away, enlists a man, and crowning injury inflicts upon him the humiliation of feeling sorry for himself. View quote
Paul Valéry
We are wont to condemn self-love but what we really mean to condemn is contrary to self-love. It is that mixture of selfishness and self-hate that permanently pursues us, that prevents us from loving others, and that prohibits us from losing ourselves. View quote
Paul Valéry
Stupidity is not my strong point. I have seen many persons; I have visited several countries; I have taken part in various enterprises without liking them; I have eaten nearly every day; I have had women. I can now recall a few hundred faces, two or three great spectacles, and the substance of perhaps twenty books. I have not retained the best nor the worst of these things: what could stay with me did. View quote
Paul Valéry
The wind is rising! . . . We must try to live! The huge air opens and shuts my book: the wave Dares to explode out of the rocks in reeking Spray. Fly away, my sun-bewildered pages! Break, waves! Break up with your rejoicing surges This quiet roof where sails like doves were pecking. View quote
Paul Valéry