Jules Renard quotes:

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Love is like an hourglass, with the heart filling up as the brain empties.
It doesn't pay to say too much when you are mad enough to choke. For the word that stings the deepest is the word that is never spoke, Let the other fellow wrangle till the storm has blown away, then he'll do a heap of thinking about the things you didn't say.
Laziness is nothing more than the habit of resting before you get tired.
On earth there is no heaven, but there are pieces of it.
An optimist is a driver who thinks that empty space at the curb won't have a hydrant beside it.
Words are the coins making up the currency of sentences, and there are always too many small coins.
Words are the small change of thought.
Don't tell a woman she's pretty; tell her there's no other woman like her, and all roads will open to you.
The story I am writing exists, written in absolutely perfect fashion, some place, in the air. All I must do is find it, and copy it.
If you are afraid of being lonely, don't try to be right.
Socialism must come down from the brain and reach the heart.
The only man who is really free is the one who can turn down an invitation to dinner without giving an excuse.
I finally know what distinguishes man from the other beasts: financial worries.
Writing is the only profession where no one considers you ridiculous if you earn no money.
I don't know if God exists, but it would be better for His reputation if He didn't.
Failure is not our only punishment for laziness; there is also the success of others.
The ideal of calm exists in a sitting cat.
We are so happy to advise others that occasionally we even do it in their interest.
It astounds us to come upon other egoists, as though we alone had the right to be selfish, and to be filled with eagerness to live.
Man who waits for roast duck to fly into mouth must wait very, very long time.
Wrinkles are engraved smiles.
We don't understand life any better at forty than at twenty, but we know it and admit it
It is in the midst of the city that one writes the most inspiring pages about the country.
A beautiful line of verse has twelve feet, and two wings.
How describe the delicate thing that happens when a brilliant insect alights on a flower? Words, with their weight, fall upon the picture like birds of prey.
It is not how old you are, but how you are old.
There are no friends; only moments of friendship.
Literature is an occupation in which you have to keep proving your talent to people who have none
In literature, there are only oxen. The biggest ones are the geniuses-the ones who toil eighteen hours a day without tiring.
A cold in the head causes less suffering than an idea.
Be modest! It is the kind of pride least likely to offend.
We are in the world to laugh. In purgatory or in hell we shall no longer be able to do so. And in heaven it would not be proper.
Talent is a question of quantity. Talent does not write one page; it writes three hundred.
The reward of great men is that, long after they have died, one is not quite sure that they are dead
True courage consists in being courageous precisely when when we're not.
Paradise does not exist, but we must nonetheless strive to be worthy of it.
the important people in our lives leave imprints. they may die or go in the physical realm, but they are always there in your heart, because they helped form your heart
If one were to build the house of happiness, the largest space would be the waiting room.
The peasant is the only species of human being who doesn't like the country and never looks at it.
There are places and moments in which one is so completely alone that one sees the world entire.
As I grow to understand life less and less,I learn to love it more and more.
I am not sincere, even when I say I am not.
Some people are so boring that they make you waste an entire day in five minutes.
Walks. The body advances, while the mind flutters around it like a bird.
Truth makes many appeals, not the least of which is its power to shock.
The bourgeois are other people.
Talent is a matter of quantity. Talent does not write on page, it writes three hundred.
The danger of success is that it makes us forget the world's dreadful injustice.
As I grow to understand life less and less I grow to love it more and more.
We spend our lives talking about this mystery. Our life.
When I think of all the books still left for me to read, I am certain of further happiness.
Only in this world do we laugh: in hell, it won't be possible; and in heaven, it won't be proper.
When the defects of others are perceived with so much clarity, it is because one possesses them oneself.
We must be greater than God, for we have to undo His injustice.
I have a remarkable memory; I forget everything. It is wonderfully convenient. It is as though the world were constantly renewing itself for me.
An egotist always resents meeting another egotist as if he alone had the right to be one.
We are ignorant of the Beyond because this ignorance is the condition of our own life. Just as ice cannot know fire except by melting and vanishing.
Life is what our character makes it. We fashion it, as a snail does its shell. A man can say: I never made a fortune because it is not in my character to be rich.
To have a horror of the bourgeois is bourgeois.
Dreaming is to think by moonlight by the light of an inner moon.
Acting of some actors seems natural, because they have no talent.
If I had my life to live over again, I would ask that not a thing be changed, but that my eyes be opened wider.
It is when we are faced with death that we turn most bookish.
To succeed you must add water to your wine, until there is no more wine.
I am never bored; to be bored is an insult to one's self.
It is more difficult to be an honorable man for a week than to be a hero for fifteen minutes.
Liberty is the right to choose. Freedom is the result of the right choice.
There is nothing like literature: I lose a cow, I write about her death, and my writing pays me enough to buy another cow.
Style is to forget all styles.
It is not enough to be happy, it is also necessary that others not be.
Style means the right word. The rest matters little.
Being bored is an insult to oneself.
Look for the ridiculous in everything and you will find it.
There are moments when everything goes well, but don't be frightened.
Those moments when you feel you want to read something truly beautiful. The eyes make a tour of the library, and there is nothing. Then you decide to take no matter what, and it is full of beautiful things.
Writing is the best way to talk without being interrupted.
Writing is a way of talking without being interrupted.
The less I understand life, the more I live it!
Our dream dashes itself against the great mystery like a wasp against a window pane. Less merciful than man, God never opens the window.
Somewhere in the shadow cast by every famous man is a feminine victim.
The void yields up nothing. You have to be a great poet to make it ring.
It is easy for a somebody to be modest, but it is difficult to be modest when one is a nobody.
Art: to nudge truth along a little.
I am afraid I shall not find him, but I shall still look for him, for if he exists, he may be appreciative of my efforts.
How many people have wanted to kill themselves, and have been content with tearing up their photograph!
Let us stay at home: there we are decent. Let us not go out: our defects wait for us at the door, like flies.
Fame is a constant effort
if I were to begin my life again, I should want it as it was. I would only open my eyes a little more.
The truly free man is he who can decline a dinner invitation without giving an excuse.
Add two letters two paris and it's paradise.
To think is not enough, you must think of something.
Broken china lasts longer than unbroken.
Words should be only the clothes, carefully custom-made to fit the thought.
I find that when I do not think of myself I do not think at all.
You can recover from the writing malady only by falling mortally ill and dying.
At the bottom of all patriotism there is war: that is why I am no patriot.
The profession of letters is, after all, the only one in which one can make no money without being ridiculous.
Whenever I have talked to anyone at too great length, I am like a man who has drunk too much, and ashamed, doesn't know where to put himself.
The horse is the only animal into which one can bang nails.
There is a justice, but we do not always see it. Discreet, smiling, it is there, at one side, a little behind injustice, which makes a big noise.
Talent is like money; you don't have to have some to talk about it.
Posterity! Why should people be less stupid tomorrow than they are today?
Clarity is the politeness of the man of letters.
God, he whom everyone knows, by name.
God does not believe in our God.
Do not ask me to be kind; just ask me to act as though I were.
In the most complete friendship there is always a little empty space, like the space in an egg.
In morals, always do as others do; in art, never.
The strong do not hesitate. They settle down, they sweat, they go on to the end. They exhaust the ink, they use up the paper.
If money does not make you happy, give it back

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