Quotes by Paul Valery

The folly of mistaking a paradox for a discovery, a metaphor for a proof, a torrent of verbiage for a spring of capital truths, and oneself for an oracle, is inborn in us. (Paul Valery)

The purpose of psychology is to give us a completely different idea of the things we know best. (Paul Valery)

The trouble with our times is that the future is not what it used to be. (Paul Valery)

The universe is built on a plan the profound symmetry of which is somehow present in the inner structure of our intellect. (Paul Valery)

To write regular verses destroys an infinite number of fine possibilities, but at the same time it suggests a multitude of distant and totally unexpected thoughts. (Paul Valery)

War: a massacre of people who don't know each other for the profit of people who know each other but don't massacre each other. (Paul Valery)

We are enriched by our reciprocate differences. (Paul Valery)

We are won't 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 in the love with which we are loved eternally. He who is able to love himself is able to love others also; he who has learned to overcome self-contempt has overcome his contempt for others. (Paul Valery)

What others think of us would be of little moment did it not, when known, so deeply tinge what we think of ourselves. (Paul Valery)