“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 is 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.” MenArtFactsEyeLawCausesEffectsCrimeHe ManTheoryCriticismCriminalsVerses Author:Paul Valery
“Thought must be hidden in the verse like nutritional virtue in a fruit.” ArtPoetryVirtueFruitVerses Author:Paul Valery
“The power of verse stems from an indefinable harmony between when it says and what it is.” ArtPoetryHarmonyVersesStemIndefinable Author:Paul Valery
“...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.” HandsValuesSongLanguageLosesIntellectualMusicalCurrentsExtremesDisappearSensualProseSignificanceBalancedVersesPower Of Language Author:Paul Valery
“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.” MomentsPhotographyAspectLettersGenreProseVersesExteriorAspects Of Life Author:Paul Valery
“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.” WritingNumbersPossibilityFineInfiniteUnexpectedVersesMultitudes Author:Paul Valery
