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About this quote

What does it mean?
Politics often interferes with individual autonomy and privacy.
In plain terms
Politics stops people from focusing on their own affairs.
What can you take from it?
Be aware of how politics intrudes on personal life.

Where it applies

  • legislative debates
  • daily life
  • civil rights

Putting it to work

  • evaluating policies
  • protecting privacy

Questions to consider

  • Where is the line between public and private?
  • Does politics help or hinder?

Another view

Politics can also protect personal freedoms rather than restrict them.

More from Paul Valery

  1. Politeness is organized indifference.

    Permalink to quote #19
  2. Politics is the art of preventing people from taking part in affairs which properly concern them.

    Permalink to quote #21
  3. The purpose of psychology is to give us a completely different idea of the things we know best.

    Permalink to quote #18

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