Paul Valery Quotations

We civilizations now know ourselves mortal.

Liberty is the hardest test that one can inflict on a people. To know how to be free is not given equally to all men and all nations.

In the physical world, one cannot increase the size or quantity of anything without changing its quality. Similar figures exist only in pure geometry.

Science is feasible when the variables are few and can be enumerated; when their combinations are distinct and clear. We are tending toward the condition of science and aspiring to do it. The artist works out his own formulas; the interest of science lies in the art of making science.

The world acquires value only through its extremes and endures only through moderation; extremists make the world great, the moderates give it stability.

There is a difference if we see something with a pencil in our hand or without one.

The dog has made man their God, if the dog was an atheist, it would be perfect.

Do you not realise that dance is the pure act of metamorphosis?

My soul is nothing now but the dream dreamt by matter struggling with itself!

Growing nations should remember that, in nature, no tree, though placed in the best conditions of light, soil, and plot, can continue to grow and spread indefinitely.