|
Paul Valéry
(30 Oct 1871 - 20 Jul 1945)
French poet, essayist and philosopher.
|
Science Quotes by Paul Valéry (10 quotes)
A man who is ‘of sound mind’ is one who keeps the inner madman under lock and key.
— Paul Valéry
…...
God made everything out of nothing. But the nothingness shows through.
— Paul Valéry
Mauvaises pensées et autres (1942). In Bill Swainson and Anne H. Soukhanov. Encarta Book of Quotations (2000), 951.
In the physical world, one cannot increase the size or quantity of anything without changing its quality. Similar figures exist only in pure geometry.
— Paul Valéry
In W.H. Auden and Louis Kronenberger, The Viking Book of Aphorisms: A Personal Selection, (1966), 98.
One had to be a Newton to notice that the moon is falling, when everyone sees that it doesn’t fall.
— Paul Valéry
…...
Science is a collection of successful recipes.
— Paul Valéry
…...
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.
— Paul Valéry
In Moralités (1932). Reprinted in J. Matthews (ed.), Collected Works (1970). As cited in Robert Andrews (ed.), The Columbia Dictionary of Quotations (1993), 810.
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 Valéry
In John Bartlett, Familiar Quotations: A Collection of Passages, Phrases, and Proverbs Traced (1968), 857.
The object of psychology is to give us a totally different idea of the things we know best.
— Paul Valéry
Tel quel (1943). In Bill Swainson and Anne H. Soukhanov. Encarta Book of Quotations (2000), 951.
The only truths which are universal are those gross enough to be thought so.
— Paul Valéry
Mauvaises pensées et autres (1942). In Bill Swainson and Anne H. Soukhanov. Encarta Book of Quotations (2000), 951.
The term Science should not be given to anything but the aggregate of the recipes that are always successful. All the rest is literature.
— Paul Valéry
Moralités (1932). In Bill Swainson and Anne H. Soukhanov. Encarta Book of Quotations (2000), 951.
In science it often happens that scientists say, 'You know that's a really good argument; my position is mistaken,' and then they would actually change their minds and you never hear that old view from them again. They really do it. It doesn't happen as often as it should, because scientists are human and change is sometimes painful. But it happens every day. I cannot recall the last time something like that happened in politics or religion.
(1987) -- 
