Paul Valéry was a French poet, essayist, and philosopher.
His lifespan on planet earth was between year 1871-1945.
His full name was Ambroise Paul Toussaint Jules Valéry was a French poet, essayist, and philosopher. In addition to his poetry and fiction, his interests included aphorisms on art, history, letters, music, and current events. Valéry was nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature in 12 different years.
Born : Ambroise Paul Toussaint Jules Valéry, on October 30, 1871, Sète, France
He Died on July 20, 1945, Paris, France
His Language used was French.
Education received at Collège de France.
Genre :Poetry, Philosophy, Essayist
His Spouse's name , Jeannie Gobillard.
His Partner : Catherine Pozzi.
Children : Agathe Rouart-Valéry.
Following are his quotes :- ( ●English; French; Chinese; hanyu pinyin )
● 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.
La guerre : un massacre de gens qui ne se connaissent pas au profit de gens qui se connaissent mais ne se massacrent pas.
战争：为了那些互相认识但不互相屠杀的人的利益而对互相不认识的人进行屠杀。Zhàn zhēng: Wèi le nà xiē hù xiāng rèn shí dàn bù hùxiāng túshā de rén de lìyì ér duì hùxiāng bù rènshí de rén jìnxíng túshā.
Bizarre, issues 24-31, (p. 102), 1962.
● The best way to make your dreams come true is to wake up.
La meilleure façon de réaliser vos rêves est de vous réveiller.
实现梦想的最好方法就是醒来。Shí xiàn mèng xiǎng de zuì hǎo fāng fǎ jiù shì xǐng lái.
● There are two ways to aquire the niceties of life:
1) To produce them or
2) To plunder them.
When plunder becomes a way of life for a group of men living together in society, they create for themselves in the course of time, a legal system that authorizes it and a moral code that glorifies it.
Il existe deux manières d’acquérir les subtilités de la vie :
1) Pour les produire ou
2) Pour les piller.
Lorsque le pillage devient un mode de vie pour un groupe d'hommes vivant ensemble en société, ils se créent au fil du temps un système juridique qui l'autorise et un code moral qui le glorifie.
获得生活美好的方法有两种：Huòdé shēnghuó měihǎo de fāngfǎ yǒu liǎng zhǒng:
1) 生产它们或 1) Shēngchǎn tāmen huò
2）掠夺他们。2) lüè duó tāmen.
当掠夺成为社会上共同生活的一群人的一种生活方式时，他们就会随着时间的推移为自己创造一个授权掠夺的法律体系和颂扬掠夺的道德准则。Dāng lüè duó chéng wéi shè huì shàng gòng tóng shēng huó de yī qún rén de yī zhǒng shēng huó fāng shì shí, tā men jiù huì suí zhe shí jiān de tuī yí wèi zì jǐ chuàng zào yī gè shòu quán lüè duó de fǎ lǜ tǐ xì hé sòng yáng lüè duó de dào dé zhǔn zé.
● The trouble with our times is that the future is not what it used to be.
Le problème de notre époque, c’est que l’avenir n’est plus ce qu’il était.
我们这个时代的问题在于，未来已不再是过去的样子。Wǒ men zhè ge shí dài de wèn tí zài yú, wèi lái yǐ bù zài shì guò qù de yàng zi.
● Let us enrich ourselves with our mutual differences.
Enrichissons-nous de nos différences mutuelles.
让我们通过彼此的差异来丰富自己。Ràng wǒ men tōng guò bǐ cǐ de chā yì lái fēng fù zì jǐ.
● Nothing beautiful can be summarized.
Rien de beau ne peut être résumé.
没有什么美丽可以概括。Méi yǒu shé me měi lì kě yǐ gài kuò.
● Beware of what you do best; its bound to be a trap.
● Breath, dreams, silence, invincible calm, you triumph.
● History is the most dangerous product which the chemistry of the mind has concocted. Its properties are well known. It produces dreams and drunkenness. It fills people with false memories, exaggerates their reactions, exacerbates old grievances, torments them in their repose, and encourages either a delirium of grandeur or a delusion of persecution. It makes whole nations bitter, arrogant, insufferable and vainglorious.
● Our most important thoughts are those that contradict our emotions.
● Two dangers constantly threaten the world: order and disorder.
● Sometimes I think, sometimes I am .
● We hope vaguely but dread precisely.
● 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.
Regards sur le Monde Actuel (1931)
● To enter into your own mind you need to be armed to the teeth.
● To see is to forget the name of the thing one sees.
●The advantage of the incomprehensible is that it never loses its freshness.
● A great man is one who leaves others at a loss after he is gone.
Un grand homme est celui qui laisse les autres désemparés après son départ.
伟人是在他去世后让别人不知所措的人。Wěi rén shì zài tā qù shì hòu ràng bié rén bù zhī suǒ cuò de rén.
●An intelligent woman is a woman with whom one can be as stupid as one wants.
Une femme intelligente est une femme avec qui on peut être aussi bête qu'on veut.
聪明的女人是一个可以随心所欲地愚蠢的女人。Cōng míng de nǚ rén shì yī gè kě yǐ suí xīn suǒ yù de yú chǔn de nǚ rén.
"Mauvaises Pensées et Autres". Book by Paul Valéry, 1941.
● Our judgments judge us, and nothing reveals us, exposes our weaknesses, more ingeniously than the attitude of pronouncing upon our fellows.
Nos jugements nous jugent, et rien ne nous révèle, n'expose nos faiblesses, plus ingénieusement que l'attitude de prononcer sur nos semblables.
我们的判断会评判我们，没有什么比向我们的同胞发号施令的态度更能巧妙地揭示我们、暴露我们的弱点了。Wǒ men de pàn duàn huì píng pàn wǒ men, méi yǒu shé me bǐ xiàng wǒ men de tóng bāo fāhàoshīlìng de tài dù gèng néng qiǎo miào de jiē shì wǒ men, bào lù wǒ men de ruò diǎn le.
● Politeness is organized indifference.
La politesse est une indifférence organisée.
礼貌是有组织的冷漠。 Lǐ mào shì yǒu zǔ zhī de lěng mò.
"Tel Quel". Book by Paul Valéry, 1943. Click here "As is" ; 按原样 ; Àn yuán yàng
● An attitude of permanent indignation signifies great mental poverty. Politics compels it votaries to take that line and you can see their minds growing more impoverished every day, from one burst of righteous indignation to the next.
Une attitude d'indignation permanente signifie une grande pauvreté mentale. La politique oblige les adeptes à adopter cette ligne et vous pouvez voir leur esprit s’appauvrir chaque jour davantage, d’un éclat d’indignation vertueuse à l’autre.
永远愤慨的态度意味着精神上的严重贫乏。Yǒngyuǎn fènkǎi de tàidù yìwèizhe jīngshén shàng de yánzhòng pínfá. 政治迫使它的选民采取这条路线，Zhèngzhì pòshǐ tā de xuǎnmín cǎiqǔ zhè tiáo lùxiàn, 你可以看到他们的思想一天比一天变得更加贫乏，nǐ kě yǐ kàn dào tā men de sī xiǎng yī tiān bǐ yī tiān biàn dé gèng jiā pín fá, 从一次又一次的正义愤慨爆发到下一次。cóng yī cì yòu yī cì de zhèng yì fèn kǎi bào fā dào xià yī cì.
● A man who is 'of sound mind' is one who keeps the inner madman under lock and key.
Un homme « sain d’esprit » est celui qui garde le fou intérieur sous clé.
一个“头脑健全”的人能够严密地锁住内心的疯子。 Yī gè “tóu nǎo jiàn quán” de rén néng gòu yán mì de suǒ zhù nèi xīn de fēng zi.
Being Yourself, Being Single, Men
Être soi-même, être célibataire, hommes
做你自己，单身，男人 Zuò nǐ zìjǐ, dānshēn, nánrén
● Every social system is more or less against nature, and at every moment nature is at work to reclaim her rights.
Tout système social est plus ou moins contre nature, et à chaque instant la nature est à l'œuvre pour reprendre ses droits.
每一种社会制度都或多或少地反对自然，而自然每时每刻都在努力收回她的权利。Měi yī zhǒng shèhuì zhìdù dōu huò duō huò shǎo de fǎnduì zìrán, ér zìrán měi shí měi kè dōu zài nǔlì shōuhuí tā de quánlì.
● Politics is the art of preventing people from busying themselves with what is their own business.
La politique est l’art d’empêcher les gens de s’occuper de ce qui les regarde.
政治是一门阻止人们忙于自己的事情的艺术。Zhèng zhì shì yī mén zǔ zhǐ rén men máng yú zì jǐ de shì qíng de yì shù.
● Serious people have few ideas. People with ideas are never serious.
Les gens sérieux ont peu d’idées. Les gens qui ont des idées ne sont jamais sérieux.
严肃的人很少有想法。 有想法的人从来都不是认真的。Yánsù de rén hěn shǎo yǒu xiǎngfǎ. Yǒu xiǎngfǎ de rén cónglái dōu bùshì rènzhēn de.
● A man's true secrets are more secret to himself than they are to others.
Les vrais secrets d’un homme sont plus secrets pour lui-même que pour les autres.
一个人真正的秘密对自己来说比对别人来说更秘密。 Yīgè rén zhēnzhèng de mìmì duì zìjǐ lái shuō bǐ duì biérén lái shuō gèng mìmì.
● Romancing love is being stupid together.
Romancer l'amour, c'est être stupide ensemble.
浪漫的爱情就是在一起愚蠢。Làng màn de àiqíng jiù shì zài yīqǐ yú chǔn.
● A limited vocabulary, but one with which you can make numerous combinations, is better than thirty thousand words that only hamper the action of the mind.
Un vocabulaire limité, mais avec lequel on peut faire de nombreuses combinaisons, vaut mieux que trente mille mots qui ne font qu'entraver l'action de l'esprit.
词汇量虽然有限，但可以进行多种组合，这比三万个只会阻碍思维活动的单词要好。Cí huì liàng suī rán yǒu xiàn, dàn kě yǐ jìn xíng duō zhǒng zǔhé, zhè bǐ sān wàn gè zhǐ huì zǔ'ài sīwéi huó dòng de dān cí yào hǎo.
● My poems mean what people take them to mean.
Mes poèmes signifient ce que les gens pensent qu’ils signifient.
我的诗所表达的意思就是人们所理解的。 Wǒ de shī suǒ biǎodá de yìsi jiùshì rénmen suǒ lǐjiě de.
● Interruption, incoherence, surprise are the ordinary conditions of our life. They have even become real needs for many people, whose minds are no longer fed by anything but sudden changes and constantly renewed stimuli. We can no longer bear anything that lasts. We no longer know how to make boredom bear fruit. So the whole question comes down to this: can the human mind master what the human mind has made?
L'interruption, l'incohérence, la surprise sont les conditions ordinaires de notre vie. Ils sont même devenus de réels besoins pour de nombreuses personnes, dont l’esprit n’est plus alimenté que par des changements soudains et des stimuli sans cesse renouvelés. Nous ne pouvons plus supporter quoi que ce soit qui dure. On ne sait plus comment faire fructifier l’ennui. Toute la question se résume donc à ceci : l’esprit humain peut-il maîtriser ce qu’il a créé ?
中断、语无伦次、惊讶是我们生活中常见的情况。Zhōng duàn, yǔ wú lún cì, jīng yà shì wǒ men shēng huó zhōng cháng jiàn de qíng kuàng. 它们甚至成为许多人的真实需求，他们的思想不再依赖于突然的变化和不断更新的刺激。Tā men shèn zhì chéng wéi xǔ duō rén de zhēn shí xū qiú, tā men de sī xiǎng bù zài yī lài yú tú rán de biàn huà hé bù duàn gēng xīn de cì jī. 我们无法再承受任何永恒的事物。Wǒ men wú fǎ zài chéng shòu rèn hé yǒng héng de shì wù. 我们不再知道如何让无聊结出果实。Wǒ men bù zài zhī dào rú hé ràng wú liáo jié chū guǒ shí. 所以整个问题归结为：人类思维能否掌握人类思维所创造的东西？ Suǒyǐ zhěnggè wèntí guījié wéi: Rén lèi sī wéi néng fǒu zhǎng wò rén lèi sī wéi suǒ chuàng zào de dōng xī ?
● Having precise ideas often leads to a man doing nothing.
Avoir des idées précises conduit souvent à ne rien faire.
拥有精确的想法往往会导致一个人无所事事。Yǒng yǒu jīng què de xiǎng fǎ wǎng wǎng huì dǎo zhì yī gè rén wú suǒ shìshì.
● History is the science of what never happens twice.
L’histoire est la science de ce qui n’arrive jamais deux fois.
历史是一门研究永远不会发生两次的事情的科学。Lìshǐ shì yī mén yánjiū yǒngyuǎn bù huì fāshēng liǎng cì de shìqíng de kēxué.
● We need to wake up from a thought that lasts too long.
Nous devons nous réveiller d’une pensée qui dure trop longtemps.
我们需要从持续太久的想法中醒来。Wǒ men xū yào cóng chí xù tài jiǔ de xiǎng fǎ zhōng xǐng lái.
● Poetry is to prose as dancing is
to walking.
La poésie est à la prose ce que la danse est à la marche.
诗歌之于散文，Shī gē zhī yú sǎn wén,
正如舞蹈之于行走。zhèng rú wǔ dǎo zhī yú xíng zǒu.
Talk on BBC Radio, January 13, 1976.
● The world acquires value only through its extremes and endures only through moderation; extremists make the world great, the moderates give it stability.
Le monde n’acquiert de valeur que par ses extrêmes et ne perdure que par la modération ; les extrémistes font le monde grand, les modérés lui donnent la stabilité.
世界只有在极端的情况下才能获得价值，Shìjiè zhǐyǒu zài jíduān dì qíngkuàng xià cáinéng huòdé jiàzhí,
只有在适度的情况下才能持久。zhǐyǒu zài shìdù de qíngkuàng xià cáinéng chíjiǔ.
极端分子让世界变得伟大，Jí duān fēn zǐ ràng shì jiè biàn dé wěi dà,
温和派让世界稳定。 wēn hé pài ràng shì jiè wěn dìng.
● Whoever wants to accomplish great things must devote to a lot of profound thought to details.
Celui qui veut accomplir de grandes choses doit consacrer beaucoup de réflexion aux détails.
任何人想要成就伟大的事情，就必须对细节投入大量深刻的思考。Rèn hé rén xiǎng yào chéng jiù wěi dà de shì qíng, jiù bì xū duì xì jié tóu rù dà liàng shēn kè de sī kǎo.
● Books have the same enemies as people: fire, humidity, animals, weather, and their own content.
Les livres ont les mêmes ennemis que les humains : le feu, l’humidité, les animaux, la météo et leur propre contenu.
书籍和人有同样的敌人：火、湿度、动物、天气和书籍本身的内容。Shū jí hé rén yǒu tóng yàng de dí rén: Huǒ, shī dù, dòng wù, tiān qì hé shū jí běn shēn de nèi róng.
●That which has always been accepted by everyone, everywhere, is almost certain to be false.
Ce qui a toujours été accepté par tous, partout, est presque certainement faux.
任何地方、每个人都接受的东西几乎肯定是错误的。 Rèn hé dì fāng, měi gè rén dōu jiē shòu de dōng xī jī hū kěn dìng shì cuò wù de.
"Tel Quel". Book by Paul Valery, 1943.
● It would be impossible to "love" anyone or anything one knew completely. Love is directed towards what lies hidden in its object.
Il serait impossible d’« aimer » quelqu’un ou quelque chose que l’on connaît complètement. L'amour est dirigé vers ce qui se cache dans son objet.
“爱”一个人完全了解的任何人或任何事物是不可能的。 爱是针对隐藏在其对象中的东西。“Ài” yī gè rén wán quán liǎo jiě de rèn hé rén huò rèn hé shì wù shì bù kě néng de. Ài shì zhēnduì yǐncáng zài qí duìxiàng zhōng de dōngxī.
● If the Ego is hateful, Love your neighbor as yourself becomes a cruel irony.
Si l’Ego est haineux, Aimer son prochain comme soi-même devient une cruelle ironie.
如果自我是可恨的，那么爱人如己就变成了残酷的讽刺。Rú guǒ zì wǒ shì kě hèn de, nà me ài rén rú jǐ jiù biàn chéng le cán kù de fèng cì.
● What is simple is wrong, and what is complicated cannot be understood.
Ce qui est simple est faux et ce qui est compliqué ne peut être compris.
简单的东西是错误的，复杂的东西是无法理解的。Jiǎn dān de dōng xī shì cuò wù de, fù zá de dōng xī shì wú fǎ lǐ jiě de.
● Advertising has annihilated the power of the most powerful adjectives.
La publicité a annihilé le pouvoir des adjectifs les plus puissants.
广告消灭了最有力的形容词的力量。Guǎng gào xiāo miè le zuì yǒu lì de xíng róng cí de lì liàng.
● One should be light like a bird, and not like a feather.
Il faut être léger comme un oiseau et non comme une plume.
一个人应该像鸟一样轻，Yī gè rén yīng gāi xiàng niǎo yī yàng qīng, 而不是像羽毛一样轻。ér bù shì xiàng yǔ máo yī yàng qīng.
● God created man and, finding him not sufficiently alone, gave him a companion to make him feel his solitude more keenly.
Dieu créa l'homme et, ne le trouvant pas assez seul, lui donna un compagnon pour lui faire ressentir plus vivement sa solitude.
上帝创造了人，Shàng dì chuàng zào le rén,
发现他还不够孤独，fā xiàn tā hái bù gòu gū dú,
就给了他一个伴侣，jiù gěi le tā yī gè bàn lǚ,
让他更敏锐地感受到孤独 。 ràng tā gèng mǐn ruì de gǎn shòu dào gū dú.
Tel Quel 1 "Moralites" (1941)
● A difficulty is a light. An insurmountable difficulty is a sun.
Une difficulté est une lumière. Une difficulté insurmontable est un soleil.
困难就是光明。Kùn nàn jiù shì guāng míng. 一个无法克服的困难是太阳。Yī gè wú fǎ kè fú de kùn nán shì tài yáng.
● Power without abuse loses its charm.
Le pouvoir sans abus perd son charme.
不滥用权力就会失去魅力。Bù làn yòng quán lì jiù huì shī qù mèi lì.
● Follow the path of your aroused thought, and you will soon meet this infernal inscription: There is nothing so beautiful as that which does not exist.
Suivez le chemin de votre pensée éveillée, et vous rencontrerez bientôt cette inscription infernale : Il n'y a rien de plus beau que ce qui n'existe pas.
沿着你被激发的思想前进，你很快就会遇到这句地狱般的铭文：没有什么比不存在的东西更美丽的了。
Yánzhe nǐ bèi jīfā de sīxiǎng qiánjìn, nǐ hěn kuài jiù huì yù dào zhè jù dìyù bān de míngwén: Méiyǒu shé me bǐ bù cúnzài de dōngxī gèng měilì dele.
● I thought it necessary to study history, even to study it deeply, in order to obtain a clear meaning of our immediate time.
J'ai pensé qu'il était nécessaire d'étudier l'histoire, voire de l'étudier en profondeur, afin d'obtenir une signification claire de notre époque immédiate.
我认为有必要研究历史，甚至深入研究历史，以便获得我们当前时代的明确意义。Wǒ rèn wéi yǒu bì yào yán jiū lì shǐ, shèn zhì shēn rù yán jiū lì shǐ, yǐ biàn huò dé wǒ men dāng qián shí dài de míng què yì yì.
● A poem is never finished, only abandoned.
Un poème n’est jamais terminé, seulement abandonné.
一首诗永远不会完成，只会被遗弃。Yī shǒu shī yǒng yuǎn bù huì wán chéng, zhǐ huì bèi yí qì.
● The future, like everything else, is no longer quite what it used to be.
L’avenir, comme tout le reste, n’est plus tout à fait ce qu’il était.
未来，就像其他一切一样，已不再是过去的样子。Wèi lái, jiù xiàng qí tā yī qiè yī yàng, yǐ bù zài shì guò qù de yàng zi.
● A bad poem is one that vanishes into meaning.
Un mauvais poème est celui qui disparaît dans son sens.
一首糟糕的诗是一首消失在意义中的诗。Yī shǒu zāo gāo de shī shì yī shǒu xiāo shī zài yì yì zhōng de shī.
● Every beginning is a consequence - every beginning ends some thing.
Chaque début est une conséquence – chaque début termine quelque chose.
每一个开始都是一个结果——每一个开始都会结束一些事情。Měi yīgè kāishǐ dōu shì yīgè jiéguǒ——měi yīgè kāishǐ dūhuì jiéshù yīxiē shìqíng.
● 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.
Le grand malheur de l'homme, c'est qu'il n'a aucun organe, aucune sorte de paupière ou de frein, pour masquer ou bloquer une pensée, ou toute pensée, quand il le veut.
人的最大不幸在于，他没有器官，没有眼睑或制动器，可以在他想要的时候掩盖或阻止一个思想或所有思想。Rén de zuìdà bùxìng zàiyú, tā méiyǒu qìguān, méiyǒu yǎnjiǎn huò zhìdòngqì, kěyǐ zài tā xiǎng yào de shíhòu yǎngài huò zǔzhǐ yīgè sīxiǎng huò suǒ yǒu sī xiǎng.
● Beauty is that which makes us despair.
La beauté est ce qui nous désespère.
美是让我们绝望的东西 Měi shì ràng wǒmen juéwàng de dōngxī
● If the state is strong, it crushes us. If it is weak, we perish.
Si l’État est fort, il nous écrase. S'il est faible, nous périssons.
如果国家强大，它就会压垮我们。 如果它很弱，我们就会灭亡。Rúguǒ guójiā qiángdà, tā jiù huì yā kuǎ wǒmen. Rúguǒ tā hěn ruò, wǒmen jiù huì mièwáng.
● God made everything out of nothing. But the nothingness shows through.
Dieu a tout fait à partir de rien. Mais le néant transparaît.
神从无到有创造了一切。 但虚无却显露出来。 Shén cóng wú dào yǒu chuàngzàole yīqiè. Dàn xūwú què xiǎnlù chūlái.
● Talent without genius isn't much, but genius without talent is nothing whatsoever.
Le talent sans génie n'est pas grand-chose, mais le génie sans talent n'est rien du tout.
没有天才的天才不算什么，但没有天才的天才则毫无意义。Méi yǒu tiān cái de tiān cái bù suàn shén me, dàn méi yǒu tiān cái de tiān cái zé háo wú yì yì.
● It seems to me that the soul, when alone with itself and speaking to itself, uses only a small number of words, none of them extraordinary.
Il me semble que l'âme, seule avec elle-même et se parlant à elle-même, n'emploie qu'un petit nombre de mots, dont aucun n'est extraordinaire.
在我看来，灵魂在独处和自言自语时，只会使用很少的词语，而且没有一个是非凡的。Zài wǒ kàn lái, líng hún zài dú chǔ hé zì yán zì yǔ shí, zhǐ huì shǐ yòng hěn shǎo de cí yǔ, ér qiě méi yǒu yī gè shì fēi fán de.
● Long years must pass before the truths we have made for ourselves become our very flesh.
De longues années doivent s’écouler avant que les vérités que nous nous sommes forgées ne deviennent notre chair même.
在我们为自己创造的真理成为我们的肉体之前，必须经过漫长的岁月。Zài wǒ men wèi zìjǐ chuàngzào de zhēnlǐ chéngwéi wǒmen de ròutǐ zhīqián, bìxū jīngguò màncháng de suìyuè.
● Ignorance is a treasure of infinite price that most men squander, when they should cherish its least fragments; some ruin it by educating themselves, others, unable to so much as conceive of making use of it, let it waste away. Quite on the contrary, we should search for it assiduously in what we think we know best. Leaf through a dictionary or try to make one, and you will find that every word covers and masks a well so bottomless that the questions you toss into it arouse no more than an echo.
L'ignorance est un trésor d'un prix infini que la plupart des hommes gaspillent, alors qu'ils devraient en chérir les moindres fragments ; les uns le ruinent en s'instruisant, les autres, incapables de concevoir de s'en servir, le laissent dépérir. Bien au contraire, nous devrions la rechercher assidûment dans ce que nous croyons connaître le mieux. Feuilletez un dictionnaire ou essayez d'en faire un, et vous constaterez que chaque mot recouvre et masque un puits si sans fond que les questions qu'on y jette n'y suscitent qu'un écho.
无知是无价的宝藏，大多数人在应该珍惜它最微不足道的碎片时却将其挥霍殆尽。 有些人通过自我教育毁掉了它，而另一些人则根本无法想象如何利用它，就让它白白浪费掉了。 恰恰相反，我们应该在我们认为最了解的事物中孜孜不倦地寻找它。 翻阅一本字典，或者试着编一本，你会发现每一个单词都掩盖和掩盖了一口无底井，你向其中抛出的问题只会引起回声。Wúzhī shì wú jià de bǎozàng, dà duōshù rén zài yīnggāi zhēnxī tā zuì wēibùzúdào de suìpiàn shí què jiāng qí huīhuò dài jǐn. Yǒu xiē rén tōngguò zìwǒ jiàoyù huǐ diàole tā, ér lìng yīxiē rén zé gēnběn wúfǎ xiǎngxiàng rúhé lìyòng tā, jiù ràng tā báibái làngfèi diàole. Qià qià xiāng fǎn, wǒmen yīnggāi zài wǒmen rènwéi zuì liǎojiě de shìwù zhòng zīzībùjuàn de xúnzhǎo tā. Fān yuè yī běn zìdiǎn, huòzhě shìzhe biān yī běn, nǐ huì fāxiàn měi yīgè dāncí dōu yǎngài hé yǎngàile yīkǒu wú dǐ jǐng, nǐ xiàng qízhōng pāo chū de wèntí zhǐ huì yǐnqǐ huíshēng.
● Do you not realise that dance is the pure act of metamorphosis?
Ne réalisez-vous pas que la danse est un pur acte de métamorphose ?
你难道没有意识到舞蹈是纯粹的变形行为吗？Nǐ nándào méiyǒu yìshí dào wǔdǎo shì chúncuì de biànxíng xíngwéi ma
● No work of art is ever completed, it is only abandoned. Aucune œuvre d’art n’est jamais achevée, elle est seulement abandonnée. 没有一件艺术作品是完成的，它只是被遗弃了。Méi yǒu yī jiàn yìshù zuòpǐn shì wánchéng de, tā zhǐshì bèi yí qì le.
•The art of abandonment is also an art. L’art de l’abandon est aussi un art. 放弃的艺术也是一门艺术。Fàng qì de yì shù yě shì yī mén yì shù. 放棄的藝術也是一門藝術。
● Thought must be hidden in the verse like nutritional virtue in a fruit. La pensée doit être cachée dans le verset comme la vertu nutritionnelle dans un fruit. 思想必须隐藏在诗句中，就像水果中的营养价值一样。Sī xiǎng bì xū yǐn cáng zài shī jù zhōng, jiù xiàng shuǐguǒ zhōng de yíngyǎng jiàzhí yīyàng.
● The dog has made man their God, if the dog was an atheist, it would be perfect. Le chien a fait de l’homme son Dieu, si le chien était athée, ce serait parfait. 狗把人类奉为上帝，如果狗是无神论者那就完美了。Gǒu bǎ rénlèi fèng wéi shàngdì, rúguǒ gǒu shì wúshénlùn zhě nà jiù wánměile.
● What is simple is false and what is not simple is useless. Ce qui est simple est faux et ce qui ne l’est pas est inutile. 简单的东西是假的，不简单的东西是无用的。 Jiǎndān de dōngxī shì jiǎ de, bù jiǎndān de dōngxī shì wúyòng de.
● Love is acting stupid together. L'amour, c'est agir de manière stupide ensemble. 爱情就是在一起做傻事。Ài qíng jiù shì zài yī qǐ zuò shǎ shì.
● We are enriched by our reciprocate differences. Nous sommes enrichis par nos différences réciproques. 我们因彼此的差异而变得丰富。Wǒ men yīn bǐ cǐ de chā yì ér biàn dé fēng fù. 我們因彼此的差異而變得豐富。
● to live means to lack something at every moment ; vivre signifie manquer de quelque chose à chaque instant; 活着就意味着每时每刻都缺少一些东西 Huó zhe jiù yì wèi zhe měi shí měi kè dōu quē shǎo yī xiē dōng xī 活著就意味著每時每刻都缺少一些東西
● A real writer can be recognized by the fact he doesn't find words. Therefore he must search for them and while doing that, he finds better ones. Un véritable écrivain se reconnaît au fait qu’il ne trouve pas les mots. Il doit donc les rechercher et ce faisant, il en trouve de meilleurs. 一个真正的作家可以通过他找不到文字的事实来识别。 因此他必须寻找它们，同时他会找到更好的。 Yīgè zhēnzhèng de zuòjiā kěyǐ tōngguò tā zhǎo bù dào wénzì de shì shí lái shì bié. Yīn cǐ tā bì xū xún zhǎo tā men, tóng shí tā huì zhǎo dào gèng hǎo de. 一個真正的作家可以透過他找不到文字的事實來識別。 因此他必須尋找它們，同時他會找到更好的。
● What one wrote playfully, another reads with tension and passion; what one wrote with tension and passion, another reads playfully. Ce que l’un a écrit de manière ludique, un autre le lit avec tension et passion ; ce que l'un a écrit avec tension et passion, un autre le lit de manière ludique. 一个人写下的内容很有趣，另一个人读起来却充满紧张和激情； 一个人写下的内容充满紧张和激情，另一个人读起来则很有趣。 Yīgè rén xiě xià de nèiróng hěn yǒuqù, lìng yīgè rén dú qǐlái què chōngmǎn jǐnzhāng hé jīqíng; yīgè rén xiě xià de nèiróng chōngmǎn jǐnzhāng hé jīqíng, lìng yīgè rén dú qǐlái zé hěn yǒuqù.一個人寫下的內容很有趣，另一個人讀起來卻充滿緊張和激情； 一個人寫下的內容充滿緊張和激情，另一個人讀起來則很有趣。
● Poetry is simply literature reduced to the essence of its active principle. It is purged of idols of every kind, of realistic illusions, of any conceivable equivocation between the language of "truth" and the language of "creation."
La poésie n'est qu'une littérature réduite à l'essence de son principe actif. Il est purgé des idoles de toutes sortes, des illusions réalistes, de toute équivoque imaginable entre le langage de la « vérité » et celui de la « création ». 诗歌只是简化为其积极原则的本质的文学。 它清除了各种偶像、现实的幻想以及“真理”语言和“创造”语言之间任何可以想象到的模棱两可的地方。Shī gē zhǐ shì jiǎn huà wéi qí jījí yuánzé de běnzhí de wénxué. Tā qīngchúle gè zhǒng ǒuxiàng, xiànshí de huànxiǎng yǐjí “zhēnlǐ” yǔyán hé “chuàngzào” yǔyán zhī jiān rènhé kěyǐ xiǎngxiàng dào de móléngliǎngkě dì dìfāng. 詩歌只是簡化為其積極原則的本質的文學。 它清除了各種偶像、現實幻想以及「真理」語言和「創造」語言之間任何可以想像到的模糊的地方。
"Littérature". Book by Paul Valery, 1930.
● The purpose of psychology is to give us a completely different idea of the things we know best. Le but de la psychologie est de nous donner une idée complètement différente des choses que nous connaissons le mieux. 心理学的目的是让我们对我们最了解的事物有一个完全不同的看法。Xīn lǐ xué de mù dì shì ràng wǒ men duì wǒ men zuì liǎo jiě de shì wù yǒu yī gè wán quán bù tóng de kàn fǎ. 心理學的目的是讓我們對我們最了解的事物有一個完全不同的看法。
● One had to be a Newton to notice that the moon is falling, when everyone sees that it doesn't fall. Il fallait être Newton pour remarquer que la lune tombe, alors que tout le monde voit qu'elle ne tombe pas. 一个人必须是牛顿才能注意到月亮正在落下，而每个人都看到它没有落下。 Yī gè rén bì xū shì niú dùn cái néng zhù yì dào yuè liàng zhèng zài luò xià, ér měi gè rén dōu kàn dào tā méi yǒu luò xià.一個人必須是牛頓才能注意到月亮正在落下，而每個人都看到它沒有落下。
● In the physical world, one cannot increase the size or quantity of anything without changing its quality. Similar figures exist only in pure geometry. Dans le monde physique, on ne peut pas augmenter la taille ou la quantité de quoi que ce soit sans en changer la qualité. Des figures similaires n'existent qu'en géométrie pure. 在物质世界中，人们无法在不改变任何事物质量的情况下增加其大小或数量。 类似的图形只存在于纯几何中。Zài wù zhí shì jiè zhōng, rén men wú fǎ zài bù gǎi biàn rèn hé shì wù zhí liàng de qíng kuàng xià zēng jiā qí dà xiǎo huò shù liàng. Lèi sì de tú xíng zhī cún zài yú chún jǐ hé zhōng. 在物質世界中，人們無法在不改變任何事物品質的情況下增加其大小或數量。 類似的圖形只存在於純幾何中。
● The very object of an art, the principle of its artifice, is precisely to impart the impression of an ideal state in which the man who reaches it will be capable of spontaneously producing, with no effort of hesitation, a magnificent and wonderfully ordered expression of his nature and our destinies.
L'objet même d'un art, le principe de son artifice est précisément de donner l'impression d'un état idéal dans lequel l'homme qui y parviendra sera capable de produire spontanément, sans effort d'hésitation, une expression magnifique et merveilleusement ordonnée de son art. sa nature et nos destinées. 艺术的真正目的，其技巧的原则，恰恰是给人一种理想状态的印象，在这种状态下，达到这种状态的人将能够毫不犹豫地自发地产生一种宏伟而奇妙的有序表达。 他的本性和我们的命运。Yì shù de zhēnzhèng mùdì, qí jìqiǎo de yuánzé, qiàqià shì jǐ rén yī zhǒng lǐxiǎng zhuàngtài de yìnxiàng, zài zhè zhǒng zhuàngtài xià, dádào zhè zhǒng zhuàngtài de rén jiāng nénggòu háo bù yóuyù dì zìfā dì chǎnshēng yī zhǒng hóngwěi ér qímiào de yǒu xù biǎodá. Tā de běnxìng hé wǒmen de mìngyùn. 藝術的真正目的，其技巧的原則，恰恰是給人一種理想狀態的印象，在這種狀態下，達到這種狀態的人將能夠毫不猶豫地自發地產生一種宏偉而井然有序的表達。祂的本性和我們的命運。
●Man is only man at the surface. Remove the skin, dissect, and immediately you come to machinery.
● 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.
● If what has happened in the one person were communicated directly to the other, all art would collapse, all the effects of art would disappear.
● A man is infinitely more complicated than his thoughts.
●You have certainly observed the curious fact that a given word which is perfectly clear when you hear it or use it in everyday language, and which does not give rise to any difficulty when it is engaged in the rapid movement of an ordinary sentence becomes magically embarrassing, introduces a strange resistance, frustrates any effort at definition as soon as you take it out of circulation to examine it separately and look for its meaning after taking away its instantaneous function.
● Conscience reigns but it does not govern.
● That which has been believed by everyone, always and everywhere, has every chance of being false.
●To hit someone means to adopt his point of view.
● A man is a poet if difficulties inherent in his art provide him with ideas; he is not a poet if they deprive him of ideas.
● We are wont to condemn self-love; but what we really mean to condemn is contrary to self-love. It is that mixture of selfishness and self-hate that permanently pursues us, that prevents us from loving others, and that prohibits us from losing ourselves.
● All nations have present, or past, or future reasons for thinking themselves incomparable.
● An artist never really finishes his work, he merely abandons it.
● History justifies whatever we want it to. It teaches absolutely nothing, for it contains everything and gives examples of everything.
● Science is a collection of successful recipes.
● Oh, hasten not this loving act, Rapture where self and not-self meet: My life has been the awaiting you, Your footfall was my own heart's beat.
● The most ridiculous were those who, on their own authority, made themselves the judges and justices of the tribe. They seemed never to suspect that our judgments judge us, and that nothing exposes our weaknesses and reveals ourselves more naively than the attitude of pronouncing upon our neighbours.
● There is a difference if we see something with a pencil in our hand or without one.
● If disorder is the rule with you, you will be penalized for installing order.
● Nothing is more natural than mutual misunderstanding; the contrary is always surprising. I believe that one never agrees on anything except by mistake, and that all harmony among human beings is the happy fruit of an error.
● Fidelity to meaning alone in translation is a kind of betrayal.
● The wind is rising ... we must attempt to live.
"Charmes ou poèmes". Book by Paul Valery, 1922.
● A really free mind is scarcely attached to its opinions. If the mind cannot help giving birth to ... emotions and affections which at first appear to be inseparable from them, it reacts against these intimate phenomena it experiences against its will.
"Reflections on the World Today" by Paul Valery, (p. 55), 1931.
● The universe is built on a plan the profound symmetry of which is somehow present in the inner structure of our intellect.
● At times I think and at times I am.
● A businessman is a hybrid of a dancer and a calculator.
Reality, Dancer, Hybridity
● 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.
Light, Tree, Plot
● Peace is a virtual, mute, sustained victory of potential powers against probable greeds.
Peace, Greed, Humanity
● History is the most dangerous product evolved from the chemistry of the intellect. ...History will justify anything. It teaches precisely nothing, for it contains everything and furnishes examples of everything.
History, Example, Chemistry
● His heart is a desert island.... The whole scope, the whole energy of his mind surround and protect him; his depths isolate him and guard him against the truth. He flatters himself that he is entirely alone there.... Patience, dear lady. Perhaps, one day, he will discover some footprint on the sand.... What holy and happy terror, what salutary fright, once he recognizes in that pure sign of grace that his island is mysteriously inhabited!
Heart, Islands, Grace
● Whatever we succeed in doing is a transformation of something we have failed to do. Thus, when we fail, it is only because we have given up.
Failure, Succeed, Transformation
● It is a sign of the times, and not a very good sign, that these days it is necessary - and not only necessary but urgent - to interest minds in the fate of Mind, that is to say, in their own fate.
Fate, Mind, These Days
● Order always weighs on the individual. Disorder makes him wish for the police or for death. These are two extreme circumstances in which human nature is not at ease.
Order, Two, Police
● Cognition reigns but does not rule.
Rule, Reign, Cognition
● The great virtues of the German people have created more evils than idleness ever did vices.
People, Evil, Insulting
● Every man expects some miracle — either from his mind or from his body or from someone else or from events.
Men, Miracle, Mind
● To penetrate one's being, one must go armed to the teeth.
Teeth, Penetrate
● A poet's work consists less in seeking words for his ideas than in seeking ideas for his words and predominant rhythms.
Art, Ideas, Poetry
●We must always apologize for talking painting.
Expression, Talking, Apologizing
●...in song the words tend to lose their significance, do often lose it, while at the other extreme, in current prose it is the musical value that tends to disappear - so that verse stands symmetrically, as it were, between song, on the one hand, and prose on the other - and is thus admirably and delicately balanced between the sensual and the intellectual power of language.
Song, Hands, Musical
● Latent in every man is a venom of amazing bitterness, a black resentment; something that curses and loathes life, a feeling of being trapped, of having trusted and been fooled, of being helpless prey to impotent rage, blind surrender, the victim of a savage, ruthless power that gives and takes away, enlists a man, drops him, promises and betrays, and -crowning injury- inflicts on him the humiliation of feeling sorry for himself.
Sorry, Men, Giving
● 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.
Art, Lying, Science
"Moralités". Book by Paul Valery, 1932.
● In poetry everything which must be said is almost impossible to say well.
Impossible, Said, Wells
● To write regular verses destroys an infinite number of fine possibilities, but at the same time it suggests a multitude of distant and totally unexpected thoughts.
Writing, Numbers, Unexpected
● In the eyes of those lovers of perfection, a work is never finished - a word that for them has no sense - but abandoned; and this abandonment, whether to the flames or to the public (and which is the result of weariness or an obligation to deliver) is a kind of an accident to them, like the breaking off of a reflection, which fatigue, irritation, or something similar has made worthless.
Eye, Reflection, Irritation
● Though completely armed with knowledge and endowed with power, we are blind and impotent in a world we have equipped and organized-a world of which we now fear the inextricable complexity.
Knowledge, World, Blind
● Freedom of mind and mind itself have been most fully developed in regions where trade developed at the same time. In all ages, without exception, every intense production of art, ideas, and spiritual values has occurred in some locality where a remarkable degree of economic activity was also manifest.
● 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.
● 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 only truths which are universal are those gross enough to be thought so.
● My hand feels touched as well as it touches; reality says this, and nothing more.
Reality, Hands, Wells
●Science means simply the aggregate of all the recipes that are always successful. All the rest is literature.
Mean, Successful, Science
● The history of thought may be summed up in these words: it is absurd by what it seeks and great by what it finds.
May, Absurd
●We civilizations now know ourselves mortal.
Civilization, Knows, Mortals
"La Crise de l'Esprit". Book by Paul Valery, 1919.
●In most cases, when the lion, weary of obeying its master, has torn and devoured him, its nerves are pacified and it looks round for another master before whom to grovel.
Nerves, Looks, Lions
●To be sincere means to be the same person when one is with oneself; that is to say, alone - but that is all it means.
Mean, Sincerity, Sincere
●Sometimes I think and other times I am.
Thinking, Sometimes, Thoughts And Thinking
●Great things are accomplished by those who do not feel the impotence of man. This is a precious gift.
Ignorance, Men, Precious Gifts
●Photography invites one to give up any attempt to delineate such things as can delineate themselves.
Photography, Giving Up, Giving
● Poems are never finished - just abandoned.
Abandoned, Finished
●The only treaties that ought to count are those which would effect a settlement between ulterior motives.
Motive, Settlement, Treaties
● It is a law of nature that we defend ourselves from one affection only by means of another.
Mean, Law, Affection
●The "determinist" swears that if we knew everything we should also be able to deduce and foretell the conduct of every man in every circumstance, and that is obvious enough. But the expression "know everything" means nothing.
Mean, Men, Expression
●Everything changes but the avant-garde.
Avant Garde, Things Change
●Man cannot bear his own portrait. The image of his limits and his own determinacy exasperates him, drives him mad.
Men, Mad, Portraits
●Sometime I think; and sometime I am.
Thinking
●The mind has transformed the world, and the world is repaying it with interest. It has led man where he had no idea how to go.
Men, Ideas, Mind
●The commerce of minds was necessarily the first commerce in the world, ... since before bartering mmthings one must barter signs, and it is necessary therefore that signs be instituted.There is no market or exchange without language. The first instrument of all commerce is language.
Mind, World, Firsts
●What golden hour of life, what glittering moment will ever equal the pain its loss can cause?
Pain, Loss, Golden
●My soul is nothing now but the dream dreamt by matter struggling with itself!
Dream, Struggle, Soul
● 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 iĺòi⁹s 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.
Art, Eye, Men
● Stupidity is not my strong suit.
Strong, Stupidity, Suits
● What Degas called 'a way of seeing' must consequently bear a wide enough interpretation to include way of being, power, knowledge, and will.
Degas, Way, Bears
● The folly of mistaking oneself for an oracle is built right into us.
Oracles, Folly, Oneself
● From the moment that photography appeared, the descriptive genre began to invade Letters... In verse as in prose the décor and exterior aspects of life took an almost excessive place.
Photography, Letters, Moment
● Poe is the only impeccable writer. He was never mistaken.
(Edgar Allan Poe)
Mistaken, Impeccable
●Just as water, gas, and electricity are brought into our houses from far off to satisfy our needs in response to a minimal effort, so we shall be supplied with visual or auditory images, which will appear and disappear at a simple movement of the hand, hardly more than a sign.
Simple, Hands, Water
●Thanks to photography, the eye grew accustomed to anticipate what it should see and to see it; and it learned not to see nonexistent things which, hitherto, it had seen so clearly.
Photography, Eye, Thanks
●The mere notion of photography, when we introduce it into our meditation on the genesis of historical knowledge and its true value, suggests the simple question: Could such and such a fact, as it is narrated here, have been photographed?
Photography, Simple, Historical Knowledge
●History is the science of things which are not repeated.
●The power of verse stems from an indefinable harmony between when it says and what it is.
Art, Poetry, Harmony
Paul Valéry
Born: October 30, 1871
Died: July 20, 1945
Occupation: Poet
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