Paul Valéry Quotations

Paul Valery

A man who is 'of sound mind' is one who keeps the inner madman under lock and key.

An intelligent woman is a woman with whom we can be as stupid as we like.

A poem is never finished, only abandoned.

God created man and, finding him not sufficiently alone, gave him a companion to make him feel his solitude more keenly.

Our most important thoughts are those which contradict our emotions.

Politics is the art of preventing people from taking part in affairs which properly concern them.

Seeing is forgetting the name of the thing seen.

The best way to make your dreams come true is to wake up.

The folly of mistaking a paradox for a discovery, a metaphor for a proof, a torrent of verbiage for a spring of capital truths, and oneself for an oracle, is inborn in us.

The purpose of psychology is to give us a completely different idea of the things we know best.

The trouble with our times is that the future is not what it used to be.

Two dangers constantly threaten the world: order and disorder.