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Serious people have few ideas. People with ideas are never serious.

Paul Valery

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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
Serious
Ideas
Never
People

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It is a law of nature that we defend ourselves from one affection only by means of another.
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The universe is built on a plan the profound symmetry of which is somehow present in the inner structure of our intellect.
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A man's true secrets are more secret to himself than they are to others.
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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.
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A businessman is a hybrid of a dancer and a calculator.
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Science is feasible when the variables are few and can be enumerated when their combinations are distinct and clear. We are tending toward the condition of science and aspiring to do it. The artist works out his own formulas the interest of science lies in the art of making science.
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In the physical world, one cannot increase the size or quantity of anything without changing its quality. Similar figures exist only in pure geometry.
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Man is only man at the surface. Remove the skin, dissect, and immediately you come to machinery.
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The best way to make your dreams come true is to wake up.
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Oh, hasten not this loving act, Rapture where self and not-self meet: My life has been the awaiting you, Your footfall was my own heart's beat.
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The purpose of psychology is to give us a completely different idea of the things we know best.
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to live means to lack something at every moment
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What is simple is false and what is not is useless.
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A poem is never finished, only abandoned.
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The only treaties that ought to count are those which would effect a settlement between ulterior motives.
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Just as water, gas, and electricity are brought into our houses from far off to satisfy our needs in response to a minimal effort, so we shall be supplied with visual or auditory images, which will appear and disappear at a simple movement of the hand, hardly more than a sign.
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The wind is rising ... we must attempt to live.
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Stupidity is not my strong suit.
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Books have the same enemies as people: fire, humidity, animals, weather, and their own content.
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A man is infinitely more complicated than his thoughts.
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