Paul Valery

Power without abuse loses its charm.

Man's great misfortune is that he has no organ, no kind of eyelid or brake, to mask or block a thought, or all thought, when he wants to.

A man's true secrets are more secret to himself than they are to others.

In poetry everything which must be said is almost impossible to say well.

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.

History is the science of things which are not repeated.