The history of thought may be summed up in these words: it is absurd by what it seeks and great by what it finds. Paul Valery More Quotes by Paul Valery More Quotes From Paul Valery 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. Paul Valery simple water hands To be sincere means to be the same person when one is with oneself; that is to say, alone - but that is all it means. Paul Valery sincerity sincere mean Thanks to photography, the eye grew accustomed to anticipate what it should see and to see it; and it learned not to see nonexistent things which, hitherto, it had seen so clearly. Paul Valery thanks eye photography Beware of what you do best; its bound to be a trap. Paul Valery bounds traps advice Though completely armed with knowledge and endowed with power, we are blind and impotent in a world we have equipped and organized-a world of which we now fear the inextricable complexity. Paul Valery blind world knowledge In the eyes of those lovers of perfection, a work is never finished - a word that for them has no sense - but abandoned; and this abandonment, whether to the flames or to the public (and which is the result of weariness or an obligation to deliver) is a kind of an accident to them, like the breaking off of a reflection, which fatigue, irritation, or something similar has made worthless. Paul Valery irritation eye reflection We are enriched by our reciprocate differences. Paul Valery reciprocate differences appreciation No work of art is ever completed, it is only abandoned. Paul Valery abandoned art-is art We need to wake up from a thought that lasts too long. Paul Valery courage long needs Conscience reigns but it does not govern. Paul Valery reign conscience doe Poems are never finished - just abandoned Paul Valery finished abandoned Long years must pass before the truths we have made for ourselves become our very flesh. Paul Valery truth long years Our judgments judge us, and nothing reveals us, exposes our weaknesses, more ingeniously than the attitude of pronouncing upon our fellows. Paul Valery judging attitude reality What one wrote playfully, another reads with tension and passion; what one wrote with tension and passion, another reads playfully. Paul Valery tension passion Science is a collection of successful recipes. Paul Valery collections recipes successful Poetry is to prose as dancing is to walking. Paul Valery hiking dance journey We civilizations now know ourselves mortal. Paul Valery mortals knows civilization Sometime I think; and sometime I am. Paul Valery thinking Great things are accomplished by those who do not feel the impotence of man. This is a precious gift. Paul Valery precious-gifts ignorance men In poetry everything which must be said is almost impossible to say well. Paul Valery wells impossible said
