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)