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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

More quotes by Paul Valery

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Cognition reigns but does not rule.
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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.
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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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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.
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If disorder is the rule with you, you will be penalized for installing order.
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Advertising has annihilated the power of the most powerful adjectives.
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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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To see is to forget the name of the thing one sees.
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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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Having precise ideas often leads to a man doing nothing.
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That which has always been accepted by everyone, everywhere, is almost certain to be false.
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Breath, dreams, silence, invincible calm, you triumph.
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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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History is the most dangerous product evolved from the chemistry of the intellect. ...History will justify anything. It teaches precisely nothing, for it contains everything and furnishes examples of everything.
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An artist never really finishes his work, he merely abandons it.
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The power of verse stems from an indefinable harmony between when it says and what it is.
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to live means to lack something at every moment
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A man is infinitely more complicated than his thoughts.
Paul Valery
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Books have the same enemies as people: fire, humidity, animals, weather, and their own content.
Paul Valery