Jules Renard

"I proceed through life like a mole. From time to time, I drop some dirt. A brief clearing. Then, back in the dark. (May 10, C.E.1900; Vergani, p. 168)"

"The peasants carry their heavy hands as if they were carrying old tools. (June 2, C.E.1900; Vergani, p. 169)"

"I can't look at a tree without being crushed by the universe. (June 16, C.E.1900; Vergani, p. 169)"

"Our goodness is but our badness that sleeps. (June 2, C.E.1900; Vergani, p. 169)"

"Those who have spoken best of death are all dead. (August 9, C.E.1900; Vergani, p. 172)"

"The white blackbird exists, but it is so white that you can't see it. The black blackbird is but its shadow. (August 11, C.E.1900; Vergani, p. 172)"

"In some friends there is nothing pleasant but their virginity. When you got married to them, things don't go well anymore. (October 9, C.E.1900; Vergani, p. 173)"

"remorse go back and forth dressed in a small carabiniere suit. (October 9, C.E.1900; Vergani, p. 173)"

"People who have themselves cremated think that, reduced to ashes, they will escape from God. (October 12, 1900; Vergani, p. 174)"

"Barring complications, he will die. (October 12, C.E.1900; Vergani, p. 174)"

"The work of others disgusts me, and I don't like my own. That's my strength and my weakness. (October 12, C.E.1900; Vergani, p. 174)"

"[Leaf|leaves]] move like the lips of a child who doesn't quite know his lesson and who is looking for what he has to say. (December 17, C.E.1900; Vergani, p. 175)"

"Life leads to anything, as long as you get out of it. (January 8, C.E.1901; Vergani, p. 177)"

"That little girl seems to be in a cage behind her grandiose undulating harp, and she keeps scratching the bars of her cage with her fingers. (January 28, C.E.1901; Vergani, p. 178)"

"You go to visit a sick person to tell you about all the illnesses you have had or that others have had. (February 18, C.E.1901; Vergani, p. 180)"

"Today I practice laughing for a good hour, to deserve the reputation of a gay writer that they wanted to give me. (February 18, C.E.1901; Vergani, p. 180)"

"It is not good for a masterpiece to be fully known, at the first try. Future generations must be given time to mature. Otherwise, they change their minds. (February 18, C.E.1901; Vergani, p. 181)"

"She is the most faithful of all the wives: in fact, she has not deceived any of her lovers. (October 23, C.E.1981; Vergani, p. 184)"

"A fly is dirtier in winter than in summer. It seems that she stayed in our room not because of the heat, but only because she was attracted by our rotten smell. (November 25, C.E.1901; Vergani, p. 190)"

"old age comes abruptly, like snow. One morning, when you wake up, you realize that everything is white. (December 9, C.E.1901; Vergani, p. 190)"

"The poets take the pleasure of sitting on Olympus; but they are too small, and their feet do not touch the ground. (December 11, C.E.1901; Vergani, p. 191)"

"My worn pants on the knee denounce that every night I look to see if there is someone under the bed. (December 22, C.E.1901; Vergani, p. 191)"

"[Disease|disease]] are the great maneuvers of death. (January 20, C.E.1902; Vergani, p. 192)"

"I know that literature does not feed the man who engages in it. Luckily I never have much of an appetite. (February 11, C.E.1902; Vergani, p. 192)"

"The kangaroo, giant flea. (April 30, C.E.1902; Vergani, p. 195)"

"First Communion: the children all seem to have been injured in their left arm. (May 7, C.E.1902; Vergani, p. 195)"

"Brain. Man walks with his roots in his head. (May 23, C.E.1902; Vergani, p. 196)"

"Death could be the dream if, at a stroke, one could open an eye. (May 24, C.E.1902; Vergani, p. 196)"

"The layman is the man who tirelessly seeks God and never finds Him. (June 16, C.E.1902; Vergani, p. 198)"

"Fidelity, during life, is nothing: but what a humiliation it is to die and appear before God without ever having deceived one's wife! (June 16, C.E.1902; Vergani, p. 198)"

"With my lantern, I found a man: myself. I look at him. (June 23, C.E.1902; Vergani, p. 198)"

"«Cuckold»: strange that this little word doesn't have the feminine. (August 2, C.E.1902)"

"One year is over. A slice has been cut off at time, and time remains whole. (December 31, C.E.1902; Vergani, p. 199)"

"His accomplishments say he's talented, and his fiascos say he's a thinker. (January 25, C.E.1903; Vergani, p. 200)"

"There are people like that boring who make us lose a day in five minutes. (February 1, C.E.1903)"

"That woman shows her breasts and believes she is offering her heart. (March 2, C.E.1903; Vergani, p. 200)"

"Rostand, the poet of crowds who think they are intelligent. (July 12, C.E.1903; Vergani, p. 207)"

"When you are sick the face immediately begins to decompose and the earth of which we are made begins to resurface. (July 12, C.E.1903; Vergani, p. 207)"

"Pulling their truth out of the well, the prying people bathe everywhere. (August 1, C.E.1903; Vergani, p. 209)"

"[Peasants]] look too much at the cemetery and not enough at death. (August 1, C.E.1903; Vergani, p. 209)"

"[Peasants]] fight dirt only with sweat. (August 1, C.E.1903; Vergani, p. 209)"

"Every year, one defect more. Here's our only progress. (October 10, C.E.1903; Vergani, p. 209)"

"My mother coughs all the time, not because she needs to cough, but to let people know she's there. (December 30, C.E.1903; Vergani, p. 211)"

"funerals also have something good about them: they serve to reconcile families. (January 30, C.E.1904; Vergani, p. 216)"

"The moralists who extol work make me think of those fellows who have been deceived by the lure of a fairground sideshow and, in revenge, try to get others in. (March 11, C.E.1904; Vergani, p. 216)"

"I'm not made for fighting. I'm made to kill people by shooting in the backside. (April 19, C.E.1904; Vergani, p. 217)"

"Peasant women are like the flowers of the field that, if you smell them, either taste of nothing or stink. (May 23, C.E.1904; Vergani, p. 218)"

"As mayor I have to worry about the good maintenance of the roads in the countryside: as a poet I would prefer them to be neglected. (May 28, C.E.1904; Vergani, p. 218)"

"Ever since I met the real peasants, every bucolic has seemed like a lie to me: even mine. (September 19, C.E.1904; Vergani, pp. 219-220)"

"In that face marked with smallpox, it seems that there is something written in Braille, with characters for the blind. (December 5, C.E.1904; Vergani, p. 223)"