Quote by Paul Valery

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

In poetry everything which must be said is almost impossible

Summary

This quote suggests that there is an inherent difficulty in expressing profound or essential thoughts effectively in poetry. The complexity of these ideas often makes it challenging for poets to convey them skillfully. Despite the poet's desire to communicate all that needs to be said, the limitations of language and the poetic form make it nearly impossible to do so in a truly powerful and impactful manner.

Topics

Poetry

By Paul Valery

Liked the quote? Share it with your friends.

Random Quotations

As societies grow decadent, the language grows decadent, too

As societies grow decadent, the language grows decadent, too. Words are used to disguise, not to illuminate, action: you liberate a city by destroying it. Words are to confuse, so that at election time people will solemnly vote against their own interests.

I look for the humanity in people, however big the politics

I look for the humanity in people, however big the politics or oppressive the situation may be, whether it's subsumed within a human being or between two human beings. I want to help us hold a mirror to ourselves.

Politics

If you have built castles in the air, your work need not be

If you have built castles in the air, your work need not be lost; that is where they should be. Now put the foundations under them.

Henry David Thoreau

...when we condescend, when we act consistently with a sense

...when we condescend, when we act consistently with a sense of the character of people in general which demeans them, we impoverish them AND ourselves, and preclude our having a part in the creation of the highest wealth, the testimony to the mysterious beauty of life we all value in psalms and tragedies and epics and meditations, in short stories and novels.

Marilynne Robinson

Beauty Condescension

We cannot think of two things at the same time.

We cannot think of two things at the same time.

Time Thetimes

We of Es Toch tell a little myth, which says that in the beg

We of Es Toch tell a little myth, which says that in the beginning the Creator told a great lie. For there was nothing at all, but the Creator spoke, saying, It exists. And behold, in order that the lie of God might be God's truth, the universe at once began to exist.

Ursula K. Le Guin

Truth Order

My culture-deprived, aspirational mother dragged me once a m

My culture-deprived, aspirational mother dragged me once a month from our northern suburb - where the word art never came up - to the Art Institute of Chicago. I hated it.

Art

Stay hungry. Stay foolish.

Stay hungry. Stay foolish.

The doors of wisdom are never shut.

The doors of wisdom are never shut.

Benjamin Franklin

Wisdom

A lot of the shows that really become hit shows are often de

A lot of the shows that really become hit shows are often demonstrated, like Mystery Science Theater.

Science Mystery

It is not from ourselves that we learn to be better than we

It is not from ourselves that we learn to be better than we are.

Excellence

For me, 'Rent' was all about coming out of myself, finding o

For me, 'Rent' was all about coming out of myself, finding out who I was, learning the power I could have as a performer.

Learning