Paul Valery

"A man who is 'of sound mind' is one who keeps the inner madman under lock and key. "

"A poem is never finished, only abandoned. "

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

"God made everything out of nothing, but the nothingness shows through. "

"La politique est l'art d'empcher les gens de se mler de ce qui les regarde. (Politics is the art of preventing people from sticking their noses in things that are properly their business. "

"Long years must pass before the truths we have made for ourselves become our very flesh. "

"Man's great misfortune is that he has no organ, no kind of eyelid or brake, to mask or block a thought, or all thought, when he wants to. "

"Politics is the art of preventing people from taking part in affairs which properly concern them. "

"That which has always been accepted by everyone, everywhere, is almost certain to be false. "

"That which has been believed by everyone, always and everywhere, has every chance of being false. "

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

"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. "

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

"Two dangers constantly threaten the world order and disorder. "

"What others think of us would be of little moment did it not, when known, so deeply tinge what we think of ourselves. "