219 Quotes by Paul Valéry

The only truths which are universal are those gross enough to be thought so.

A great man is one who leaves others at a loss after he is gone.

Oh, hasten not this loving act, Rapture where self and not-self meet: My life has been the awaiting you, Your footfall was my own heart's beat.

The future, like everything else, is not what it used to be.

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

You have certainly observed the curious fact that a given word which is perfectly clear when you hear it or use it in everyday language, and which does not give rise to any difficulty when it is engaged in the rapid movement of an ordinary sentence becomes magically embarrassing, introduces a strange resistance, frustrates any effort at definition as soon as you take it out of circulation to examine it separately and look for its meaning after taking away its instantaneous function.

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

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.

Every man expects some miracle — either from his mind or from his body or from someone else or from events.