Paul Valery Quotes

Many people see themselves as a problem that needs to be solved. They also habitually see the present moment as an obstacle that they need to overcome or get away from. With awareness, an inner sense of spaciousness arises that enables you to look at your own mind, which is to say the human mind, with a certain degree of detachment.

You will continue to suffer if you have an emotional reaction to everything that is said to you. True power is sitting back and observing things with logic. True power is restraint. If words control you that means everyone else can control you. Breathe and allow things to pass.

I'm not too big on feelings.

I don't hate Guardiola. These kind of feelings don't suit with professional matters.

I don't take anything personally.

If you ever want to tame your inner demons, you must consciously choose never to become too attached to any particular life plan - and always remain open to the idea that there might be an even better life plan for you.

There are three conditions which often look alike Yet differ completely, flourish in the same hedgerow: Attachment to self and to things and to persons, detachment From self and from things and from persons; and, growing between them, indifference, ... .

Whenever you are in anger, remember yourself. In that very remembering the focus changes, the gestalt changes. You become more and more centred. Anger remains there just on the periphery of your being, but you know now that it is separate from you. You are not angry, you are only a witness to it. Now it is up to you to choose to be angry or not to be angry. You are no more identified; hence the freedom to choose.

If I'm judging the attachment, myself, or another person, then I create separation.

I don't recognize hate, I don't recognize bitterness, I don't recognize jealousy, I don't recognize greed. I don't give them power. They don't exist to me.

That mind which understands itself is the mind of a free man.

I have many times been praised for my lack of animosity towards the Germans. It's not a philosophical virtue. It's a habit of having my second reactions before the first.

Work done for the Self gives no bondage. Neither desire pleasure nor fear pain from work. It is the mind and body that work, not I. Tell yourself this unceasingly and realise it. Try not to know that you work.

A man does not mind being blamed for his faults, and being punished for them, and he patiently suffers much for them; but he becomes impatient if he is required to give them up.

Emotion can be the enemy, if you give into your emotion, you lose yourself. You must be at one with your emotion, because the body always follows the mind.

To be well in your mind you have first to be free.

When I film, there are no emotions. That would be the last thing.

Freedom of the mind requires not only, or not even especially the absence of legal constraints but the presence of alternative thoughts.

Don't get seduced by your own stuff; work hard to keep a blank slate state of mind each time you watch your film.

i have come to terms with my life, and that is my affair - i am not cold, i swear, but i have decided certain things, it is best for me to ignore emotion; i have not been happy dealing with it.

By a conscious effort of the mind we can stand aloof from actions and their consequences; and all things, good and bad, go by us like a torrent.

A great mind is one that can forget or look beyond itself.

Ah! but the moods lie in his nature, my boy, just as much as his reflections did, and more. A man can never do anything at variance with his own nature. He carries within him the germ of his most exceptional action; and if we wise people make eminent fools of ourselves on any particular occasion, we must endure the legitimate conclusion that we carry a few grains of folly to our ounce of wisdom.

Emotions will either serve or master, depending on who is in charge.