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Paul Valéry

File:Paul_Valéry_-_photo_Henri_Manuel.jpg · Wikimedia Commons · See Wikimedia Commons

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Paul Valéry

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Also known as Paul Ambroise Valery, Paul-Ambroise Valéry, Paul Valery, Paul-Ambroise Valery

French poet, essayist, and philosopher (1871–1945)

AI overview

Paul Valéry was a French poet, essayist, and philosopher who lived from 1871 to 1945 and became one of the most influential literary figures of the twentieth century. His work explored the nature of consciousness, language, and creativity, making him important to understanding modern poetry and intellectual thought.

AI-generated from the Wikipedia summary — may contain errors.

Person · Open Library

Born
1871
Died
1945
Works
757

Top works

  • Choses tues
  • Selected writings
  • Sémiramis
  • Eṿupalinos o ha-adrikhal
  • [Translations of some of his works and articles about him]

via Open Library + Wikidata

Music · MusicBrainz

Type
Person
Gender
Male
Origin
France
Active from
1871
Active to
1945

via MusicBrainz · CC0

Listeners · Last.fm

Listeners
20
Total plays
42

Ambroise-Paul-Toussaint-Jules Valéry (French: [pɔl valeʁi]; 30 October 1871 – 20 July 1945) was a French poet, essayist, and philosopher. His interests were sufficiently broad that he can be classified as a polymath. In addition to his poetry and fiction (drama and dialogues), his interests included aphorisms on art, history, letters, music, and current events. <a href="https://www.last.fm/music/Paul+Val%C3%A9ry">Read more on Last.fm</a>

via Last.fm · Paul Valéry

Quotes

  • A difficulty is a light, but an insurmountable difficulty can be the very sun in what it reveals to us... [Une difficulté est une lumière. Une difficulté insurmontable est un soleil.]
  • Le mal de prendre une hypallage pour une découverte, une métaphore pour une démonstration, un vomissement de mots pour un torrent de connaissances capitales, et soi-même pour un oracle, ce mal naît avec nous.
  • 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.
  • We civilizations now know ourselves mortal.
  • 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."
  • 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.

via Wikiquote · CC BY-SA

~17 min read

Encyclopedic overview

Ambroise Paul Toussaint Jules Valéry ( French: [pɔl valeʁi]; 30 October 1871 – 20 July 1945) was a French poet, essayist, and philosopher. In addition to his poetry and fiction (drama and dialogues), 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.

Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “Paul Valéry” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.

Gallery (2)