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The advantage of the incomprehensible is that it never loses its freshness.

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
Incomprehensible
Freshness
Advantage
Loses
Never

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History is the science of what never happens twice.
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What is simple is wrong, and what is complicated cannot be understood.
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My hand feels touched as well as it touches reality says this, and nothing more.
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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.
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Having precise ideas often leads to a man doing nothing.
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An artist never really finishes his work, he merely abandons it.
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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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A man's true secrets are more secret to himself than they are to others.
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To see is to forget the name of the thing one sees.
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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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A poet's work consists less in seeking words for his ideas than in seeking ideas for his words and predominant rhythms.
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Fidelity to meaning alone in translation is a kind of betrayal.
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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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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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The most ridiculous were those who, on their own authority, made themselves the judges and justices of the tribe. They seemed never to suspect that our judgments judge us, and that nothing exposes our weaknesses and reveals ourselves more naively than the attitude of pronouncing upon our neighbors.
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The best way to make your dreams come true is to wake up.
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Long years must pass before the truths we have made for ourselves become our very flesh.
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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 dog has made man their God, if the dog was an atheist, it would be perfect.
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A poem is never finished, only abandoned.
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