The folly of mistaking a paradox for a discovery, a metaphor for a proof, a torrent of verbiage for a spring of capital truths, and oneself for an oracle, is inborn in us. – 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
War: a massacre of people who dont know each other for the profit of people who know each other but dont massacre each other. – 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
It is already possible to imagine a society in which the majority of the population, that is to say, its laborers, will have almost as much leisure as in earlier times was enjoyed by the aristocracy. When one recalls how aristocracies in the past actually behaved, the prospect is not cheerful. – W. H. Auden