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@xy, member from Sept. 25, 2023

Favourite quotes (21448)

“For the musician, before he has begun his work, all is in readiness so that the operation of his creative spirit may find, right from the start, the appropriate matter and means, without any possibility of error.”

Paul Valéry (1871–1945) French poet, essayist, and philosopher

Originally delivered as a lecture (late 1927); Pure Poetry: Notes for a Lecture The Creative Vision (1960)
Context: For the musician, before he has begun his work, all is in readiness so that the operation of his creative spirit may find, right from the start, the appropriate matter and means, without any possibility of error. He will not have to make this matter and means submit to any modification; he need only assemble elements which are clearly defined and ready-made. But in how different a situation is the poet! Before him is ordinary language, this aggregate of means which are not suited to his purpose, not made for him. There have not been physicians to determine the relationships of these means for him; there have not been constructors of scales; no diapason, no metronome, no certitude of this kind. He has nothing but the coarse instrument of the dictionary and the grammar. Moreover, he must address himself not to a special and unique sense like hearing, which the musician bends to his will, and which is, besides, the organ par excellence of expectation and attention; but rather to a general and diffused expectation, and he does so through a language which is a very odd mixture of incoherent stimuli.

“Collect all the facts that can be collected about the life of Racine and you will never learn from them the art of his verse.”

Paul Valéry (1871–1945) French poet, essayist, and philosopher

Introduction to the Method of Leonardo da Vinci (1895)
Context: Collect all the facts that can be collected about the life of Racine and you will never learn from them the art of his verse. All criticism is dominated by the outworn theory that the man is the cause of the work as in the eyes of the law the criminal is the cause of the crime. Far rather are they both the effects.

“The artist works out his own formulas; the interest of science lies in the art of making science.”

Paul Valéry (1871–1945) French poet, essayist, and philosopher

Moralités (1932)
Context: 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.

“To construct oneself, to know oneself—are these two distinct acts or not?”

Paul Valéry (1871–1945) French poet, essayist, and philosopher

Socrates, p. 81
Eupalinos ou l'architecte (1921)

“To enter into your own mind you need to be armed to the teeth.”

Paul Valéry (1871–1945) French poet, essayist, and philosopher

“Sometime I think; and sometime I am.”

Paul Valéry (1871–1945) French poet, essayist, and philosopher

“Books have the same enemies as people: fire, humidity, animals, weather, and their own content.”

Paul Valéry (1871–1945) French poet, essayist, and philosopher

“Love is being stupid together.”

Paul Valéry (1871–1945) French poet, essayist, and philosopher

“Poems are never finished - just abandoned”

Paul Valéry (1871–1945) French poet, essayist, and philosopher

Unsourced

“The wind is rising! . . . We must try to live!”

Paul Valéry (1871–1945) French poet, essayist, and philosopher

As translated by by C. Day Lewis
Variant translations:
The wind is rising ... we must attempt to live.
Charmes ou poèmes (1922)
Context: The wind is rising!... We must try to live!
The huge air opens and shuts my book: the wave
Dares to explode out of the rocks in reeking
Spray. Fly away, my sun-bewildered pages!
Break, waves! Break up with your rejoicing surges
This quiet roof where sails like doves were pecking.

“to live means to lack something at every moment”

Paul Valéry (1871–1945) French poet, essayist, and philosopher

We consider the quote as suspicious, we have no evidence supporting authorship

“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) French poet, essayist, and philosopher

La guerre, c'est un massacre de gens qui ne se connaissent pas, au profit de gens qui se connaissent, mais ne se massacrent pas.
Bizarre, issues 24-31 (1962), p. 102
This apocryphal quote from Paul Valéry is never precisely sourced: neither on the internet nor in the works we have consulted. See: https://www.guichetdusavoir.org/question/voir/52650

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

Paul Valéry (1871–1945) French poet, essayist, and philosopher

Unsourced

“God created man, and finding him not sufficiently alone, gave him a female companion so that he might feel his solitude more acutely.”

Paul Valéry (1871–1945) French poet, essayist, and philosopher

Tel Quel (1943)

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

Paul Valéry (1871–1945) French poet, essayist, and philosopher

„A festőnek nem azt kell festenie, amit lát, hanem azt a képet, amelyet látni fognak.”

Help us translate this quote

Paul Valéry (1871–1945)

„A leghevesebb viszályok mindig olyan tanok vagy dogmák között dúlnak, amelyek nagyon kevéssé különböznek egymástól. Az óhitűek és az eretnekek között elkeseredettebb és élesebb a harc, mint az óhitűek és a pogányok között.”