Words vs. Meaning

....But when I look into myself to the bottom, I must agree with what is said by so many distinguished persons. It is true, my friend, I am composed of an unfortunate mind which is never quite sure that it has understood what it has understood without realizing it. I find it very hard to distinguish what is clear without reflection from what is positively obscure.... This weakness is no doubt the source of my darkness. I am suspicious of all words, for even the slightest reflection shows the absurdity of trusting them. I have come to the point, alas, of comparing words by which we traverse so lightly the space of a thought to thin planks thrown across an abyss, which allow crossing but no stopping. A man in swift movement uses them safely, but let him pause for the slightest moment, and that bit of time breaks them down and all together fall into the abyss. The man who goes quickly has learned he must not dwell; it would soon be found that the clearest text is a tisssue of obscure terms.
— Paul Valery, Monsieur Teste, p. 55.

"....Simply remember that between men there are two relations only: logic or war. Always demand proof, proof is the elementary courtesy that is anyone's due. If that is withheld, remember that you are being attacked and that every means will be played to make you obey. You will be trapped by the pleasures or the charm of no matter what, you will be impassioned by someone else's passion; you will be made to think what you have neither thought about nor understood; you will be touched, delighted, dazzled; you will draw conclusions from premises that someone else has fabricated for you, and you will discover, with a certain genius, ... all that you know by heart."
     "The most difficult thing is to see what is," I sighed.
     "Yes," said Monsieur Teste, "that is, not to be confused by words. You must feel that you can arrange them as you will, and for every combination that can be put together there is not necessarily some corresponding thing...."
— Paul Valery, Ibid., p. 65.

Teste in chains.

     I know so many things, surmise so many connections, that I no longer talk. Nor even think, knowing already as the idea dawns that a whole system is coming into play, that enormous labor is required, that I shall not go as far as I know I ought to go. This tires me at the start. I won't have the courage to look into this flash, in detail — it illuminates many years in a second.
— Paul Valery, Ibid., p. 90.

Teste : Notebook.
     To surmount:
     Undo all the traps which all acquired ideas are...
     Words remain ... forms remain ... learn to take them for what they are — i.e., one's potential, drawn out of oneself by unknowns. This is the essence of language. Nothing more. But nothing less. Language is good, it does its job when it's used and forgotten by circumstance and need, like a tool — pliers or a drill — or a kind of currency — sometimes a weapon.
     But never as an oracle, as if it knew more than we, good for philosophers who believe in knowledge, who question the questioner, and make him answer....
     Undo all the snares of the mind's sensibility : the idols of originality and envy.
                                                                         28:233
— Paul Valery, Ibid., p. 144.

     No one could accept himself as he is if some miraculous circumstance offered him a full knowledge of what he was and what he is. Man recognizes HIMSELF only ... in ANOTHER!
                                                                        28:823
— Paul Valery, Ibid., p. 148.