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Having precise ideas often leads to a man doing nothing.

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
Leads
Often
Ideas
Nothing
Men
Precise

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The mind has transformed the world, and the world is repaying it with interest. It has led man where he had no idea how to go.
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We hope vaguely but dread precisely.
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Breath, dreams, silence, invincible calm, you triumph.
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The dog has made man their God, if the dog was an atheist, it would be perfect.
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The great virtues of the German people have created more evils than idleness ever did vices
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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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Stupidity is not my strong suit.
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An artist never really finishes his work, he merely abandons it.
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Cognition reigns but does not rule.
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Long years must pass before the truths we have made for ourselves become our very flesh.
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Two dangers constantly threaten the world: order and disorder.
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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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to live means to lack something at every moment
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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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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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What is simple is wrong, and what is complicated cannot be understood.
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At times I think and at times I am.
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One should be light like a bird, and not like a feather.
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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.
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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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