Books have the same enemies as people: fire, humidity, animals, weather, and their own content. — Paul Valery
God created man and, finding him not sufficiently alone, gave him a companion to make him feel his solitude more keenly. — Paul Valery
Long years must pass before the truths we have made for ourselves become our very flesh. — Paul Valery
Politics is the art of preventing people from busying themselves with what is their own business. — Paul Valery
Science means simply the aggregate of all the recipes that are always successful. All the rest is literature. — Paul Valery
That which has always been accepted by everyone, everywhere, is almost certain to be false. — Paul Valery
That which has been believed by everyone, always and everywhere, has every chance of being false. — Paul Valery
The history of thought may be summed up in these words: it is absurd by what it seeks and great by what it finds. — Paul Valery
The purpose of psychology is to give us a completely different idea of the things we know best. — Paul Valery
The universe is built on a plan the profound symmetry of which is somehow present in the inner structure of our intellect. — Paul Valery