Paul Valéry — a remark

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“Man is absurd in what he seeks, great in what he finds.”

Original: L'homme est absurde par ce qu'il cherche, grand par ce qu'il trouve. — The aphorism contrasts the uncertainty of human striving with the greatness of discovery. · Correspondence, 1890–1942 (French)

About Paul Valéry

Paul Valéry

30 October 1871–20 July 1945

In the autumn of 1871, as France was still reeling from the trauma of the Franco-Prussian War and the violent suppression of the Paris Commune, a child was born in the Mediterranean port town of Sète who would become one of the twentieth century's most formidable literary intellects. Ambroise Paul Toussaint Jules…

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