If the state is strong, it crushes us. If it is weak, we perish.

A work is never completed except by some accident such as weariness, satisfaction, the need to deliver, or death: for, in relation to who or what is making it, it can only be one stage in a series of inner transformations.
PAUL VALERY

Death Need Satisfaction
To see is to forget the name of the thing one sees.
PAUL VALERY

Name Photography Vision
An intelligent woman is a woman with whom one can be as stupid as one wants.
PAUL VALERY

Intelligent Need Stupid
We civilizations now know ourselves mortal.
PAUL VALERY

Civilization Know Mortal
Great things are accomplished by men who are not conscious of the impotence of man. Such insensitiveness is precious. But we must admit that criminals are not unlike our heroes in this respect.
PAUL VALERY

Criminal Hero Men
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.
PAUL VALERY

Equality Men People
What is simple is false and what is not is useless.
PAUL VALERY

Honesty Simple Useless
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.
PAUL VALERY

Light Plot Tree
If the state is strong, it crushes us. If it is weak, we perish.
PAUL VALERY

Crush Strong Weak

More Paul Valery Quotes