“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.” IfsKnowsMenShouldMeanEnoughAbleExpressionCircumstancesObviousEvery ManSwear Author:Paul Valery
“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.” ShouldEyeGrewPhotographyThanksAccustomedAnticipate Author:Paul Valery
“One should be light like a bird, and not like a feather.” ShouldLightBirdFeathers Author:Paul Valery
“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.” ThinkingKnowsMenShouldTryingWellsUseEducationIgnoranceWasteInfiniteContraryTreasureRuinsMaskCherishEchoesLeafsFragmentsDictionaryToss Author:Paul Valery
“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.” ShouldLightRememberNationsGrowsGrowingTreeConditionsSpreadSoilPlot Author:Paul Valery
