Paul Valéry

dreams true wake up

"The best way to make your dreams come true is to wake up."

— Paul Valéry (1871-1945)

enrich mutual difference

"Let us enrich ourselves with our mutual differences."

— Paul Valéry (1871-1945)

war massacre profit

"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 Valéry (1871-1945)

aquire niceties lfe produce plunder legal moral

"There are two ways to aquire the niceties of life:

1) To produce them or

2) To plunder them.

When plunder becomes a way of life for a group of men living together in society, they create for themselves in the course of time, a legal system that authorizes it and a moral code that glorifies it."

— Paul Valéry (1871-1945)

thinking being

"Sometimes I think, sometimes I am."

— Paul Valéry (1871-1945)

hope vague dread precise

"We hope vaguely but dread precisely."

— Paul Valéry (1871-1945)

trouble time future

"The trouble with our times is that the future is not what it used to be."

— Paul Valéry (1871-1945)

important thought contradict emotion

"Our most important thoughts are those that contradict our emotions."

— Paul Valéry (1871-1945)

society nature contradict

"Every social system is more or less against nature, and at every moment nature is at work to reclaim her rights."

— Paul Valéry (1871-1945)

politeness indifference

"Politeness is organized indifference."

— Paul Valéry (1871-1945)

advantage incomprehensible freshness

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

— Paul Valéry (1871-1945)

politics prevent busy business

"Politics is the art of preventing people from busying themselves with what is their own business."

— Paul Valéry (1871-1945)

misfortune block thought mind brain

"Man's great misfortune is that he has no organ, no kind of eyelid or brake, to mask or block a thought, or all thought, when he wants to."

— Paul Valéry (1871-1945)

power abuse charm

"Power without abuse loses its charm."

— Paul Valéry (1871-1945)

beginning consequence end change

"Every beginning is a consequence - every beginning ends some thing."

mutual misunderstanding mistake harmony error

"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."

— Paul Valéry (1871-1945)

state strong crush weak perish

"If the state is strong, it crushes us. If it is weak, we perish."

— Paul Valéry (1871-1945)

advertising annihilate adjective powerful

"Advertising has annihilated the power of the most powerful adjectives."

— Paul Valéry (1871-1945)

poetry prose dance walk

"Poetry is to prose as dancing is to walking."

— Paul Valéry (1871-1945)

Newton moon fall

"One had to be a Newton to notice that the moon is falling, when everyone sees that it doesn't fall."

— Paul Valéry (1871-1945)

belief everyone always everywhere false

"That which has been believed by everyone, always and everywhere, has every chance of being false."

— Paul Valéry (1871-1945)