Quote

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.

Paul Valery

Change background

T
T
T

Change font

TAGS & TOPICS

Paul Valery
Age: 73 †
Born: 1871
Born: October 30
Died: 1945
Died: July 20
Essayist
Journalist
Literary Critic
Philosopher
Poet
Professor
Writer
Cette
Paul Ambroise Valéry
Paul Ambroise Valery
Paul-Ambroise Valéry
Paul Valery
Paul-Ambroise Valery
Nothing
Beings
Error
Believe
Among
Mutual
Always
Mistake
Errors
Never
Happy
Contrary
Natural
Harmony
Anything
Fruit
Agrees
Human
Agree
Misunderstanding
Humans
Except
Surprising

More quotes by Paul Valery

Image
An artist never really finishes his work, he merely abandons it.
Paul Valery
Image
It is a sign of the times, and not a very good sign, that these days it is necessary - and not only necessary but urgent - to interest minds in the fate of Mind, that is to say, in their own fate.
Paul Valery
Image
The best way to make your dreams come true is to wake up.
Paul Valery
Image
A great man is one who leaves others at a loss after he is gone.
Paul Valery
Image
We hope vaguely but dread precisely.
Paul Valery
Image
One should be light like a bird, and not like a feather.
Paul Valery
Image
Politics is the art of preventing people from busying themselves with what is their own business.
Paul Valery
Image
Serious people have few ideas. People with ideas are never serious.
Paul Valery
Image
History is the science of what never happens twice.
Paul Valery
Image
A poet's work consists less in seeking words for his ideas than in seeking ideas for his words and predominant rhythms.
Paul Valery
Image
The commerce of minds was necessarily the first commerce in the world, ... since before bartering things one must barter signs, and it is necessary therefore that signs be instituted.There is no market or exchange without language. The first instrument of all commerce is language.
Paul Valery
Image
The only truths which are universal are those gross enough to be thought so.
Paul Valery
Image
Stupidity is not my strong suit.
Paul Valery
Image
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.
Paul Valery
Image
Growing nations should remember that, in nature, no tree, though placed in the best conditions of light, soil, and plot, can continue to grow and spread indefinitely.
Paul Valery
Image
Every man expects some miracle — either from his mind or from his body or from someone else or from events.
Paul Valery
Image
The mere notion of photography, when we introduce it into our meditation on the genesis of historical knowledge and its true value, suggests the simple question: Could such and such a fact, as it is narrated here, have been photographed?
Paul Valery
Image
There is a difference if we see something with a pencil in our hand or without one.
Paul Valery
Image
Photography invites one to give up any attempt to delineate such things as can delineate themselves.
Paul Valery
Image
That which has always been accepted by everyone, everywhere, is almost certain to be false.
Paul Valery