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Politics is the art of stopping people from minding their own business.

— Paul Valéry Tel Quel (1943)

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More quotes by Paul Valéry

Reason, sometimes, seems to me to be the faculty our soul possesses of understanding nothing about our body!

L'Âme et la danse (1921)

Most people in reasoning, dear Phaedrus, use notions that not only are "ready-made," but have actually been made by nobody. No one is responsible for them, and so they serve everyone badly.

Eupalinos ou l'architecte (1921)

My soul is nothing now but the dream dreamt by matter struggling with itself!

L'Âme et la danse (1921)

That which has always been accepted by everyone, everywhere, is almost certain to be false.

Tel Quel (1943)

To construct oneself, to know oneself—are these two distinct acts or not?

Eupalinos ou l'architecte (1921)

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I don't think that corporations are these big bogeymen that a lot of people paint them to be.

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An artisan busies himself with his work for three hours each day and spends nine hours in study.

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The rule of my life is to make business a pleasure and pleasure my business.

Aaron Burr

A business of high principle generates greater drive and effectiveness because people know that they can do the right thing decisively and with confidence.

Marvin Bower The Will to Manage (1966)

Attribution

Quote text and notes from Wikiquote: Paul Valéry (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.