Paul Valery Quotes

The opposite of a correct statement is a false statement. But the opposite of a profound truth may well be another profound truth.

The opposite of a fact is falsehood, but the opposite of one profound truth may very well be another profound truth.

The right understanding of any matter and a misunderstanding of the same matter do not wholly exclude each other.

The old saying of the two kinds of truth. To the one kind belongs statements so simple and clear that the opposite assertion obviously could not be defended. The other kind, the so-called 'deep truths', are statements in which the opposite also contains deep truth.

It’s as simple as that. Simple and complicated, as most true things are.

The truth is rarely true and never simple.

The words of truth are always paradoxical.

Contradiction was something I really like when it is embraced in that kind of philosophy.

All truth is simple... is that not doubly a lie?

The opposite of every truth is just as true.

In the essence of truth lies deceit.

It is the hallmark of any deep truth that its negation is also a deep truth.

It is not at all simple to understand the simple.

Everything is simpler than one can imagine, and yet complicated and inter-twined beyond comprehension.

Everything is true and not true about everything. That’s one thing I’ve learned.

The instruments for the quest for Truth are as simple as they are difficult.

Which path do you intend to take, Nell?' said the Constable, sounding very interested. 'Conformity or rebellion?' Neither one. Both ways are simple-minded - they are only for people who cannot cope with contradiction and ambiguity.

You want the truth, of course. You want me to put two and two together. But two and two doesn’t necessarily get you the truth. Two and two equals a voice outside the window. Two and two equals the wind. The living bird is not its labeled bones.

Life is a paradox. Every truth has its counterpart which contradicts it; and every philosopher supplies the logic his own undoing.

It's all very simple, or else it's all very complex, or perhaps it's neither, or both.

Truth is always paradoxical.

The reality of a question is inevitably more complicated than we would like to suppose.

Almost every wise saying has an opposite one, no less wise, to balance it.

The difficulty is to try and teach the multitude that something can be true and untrue at the same time.

It always takes awfully long time to understand unbelievably simple things.