"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)"

"Provincial walls exude resentment. (December 30, C.E.1896; Vergani, p. 117)"

"I know at last what distinguishes man from beasts; financial difficulties. (December 16, C.E.1904; Vergani, p. 224)"

"Slavs: writers who write between the lines instead of writing on them. (January 9, C.E.1905; Vergani, p. 225)"

"I have an anticlerical soul and a monk's heart. (January 24, C.E.1905; Vergani, p. 227)"

"Let us work harder: let us work hard to live less and to die sooner. (March 16, C.E.1893; Vergani, p. 64)"

"Friends. We see each other too much, we see each other less, we don't see each other anymore. (April 9, C.E.1894; Vergani, p. 74)"

"My jokes will make a fortune, I won't. (July 30, C.E.1897; Vergani, p. 132)"

"actresses are very willing to play the part of an old woman but not a part of a mature woman. (November 16, C.E.1897; Vergani, p. 133)"

"death of others helps us to live. (October 5, C.E.1892; Vergani, p. 60)"

"Childhood memories drawn with an unlit match. (January 22, C.E.1893; Vergani, p. 63)"

"Verlaine, a dunghill Socrates. (October 10, C.E.1892; Vergani, p. 60)"

"The rare, brief joy of hearing that there is a little bit of perfection every year. (October 28, C.E.1892; Vergani, p. 61)"

"It is necessary to love nature and men in spite of their mud. (March 27, C.E.1893; Vergani, p. 65)"

"The smell of ink is enough to make my dreams die. (September 15, C.E.1893; Vergani, p. 66)"

"I know: all great men, in the beginning, were misunderstood; But I'm not a great man and I'd like to be understood right away. (April 28, C.E.1893; Vergani, p. 65)"

"The blessed solitude in which one can finally thoroughly wipe one's nose. (Sept. 11, C.E.1893; Vergani, p. 66)"

"children should be optional apparitions. When Fantec sees me again a fortnight later, he tells me that I have grown up. (February 4, C.E.1894; Vergani, p. 72)"

"Distinguished critic, I understand your criticism very well. Know, let it be said between us, that I don't always like myself either. (October 14, C.E.1893; Vergani, p. 67)"

"And the grasshopper that we decapitate and that, without losing their heads for so little, fly out of the window with a stroke of the wing? (March 1, C.E.1893; Vergani, p. 73)"

"I will love you long enough to recognize that your pretty mole is but a wart. (March 2, C.E.1893; Vergani, p. 73)"

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

"At the bottom of all patriotism is war: that's why I'm not a patriot. (June 14, C.E.1899; Vergani, p. 153)"

"If you were to announce to me the death of my little girl whom I love so much, and in your words there was a picturesque one, I could not hear it without being fascinated by it. (July 9, C.E.1896; Vergani, pp. 109-110)"

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

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

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

"If the house of happiness were to be built, the largest room would be the waiting room. (August 1, C.E.1899)"

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

"The word is the excuse of thought. (17 April 1896)"

"Glory is no more than a colonial genre. (July 18, C.E.1896; Vergani, p. 110)"

"The cat is the life of furniture. (February 11, C.E.1899; Vergani, p. 151)"

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

"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)"

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

"If I had talent, I would be imitated. If I were imitated, I would become fashionable. If I became fashionable, I would quickly go out of style. It is better, then, that I have no talent. (April 21, C.E.1896; Vergani, p. 108)"

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

"If you had been a friend or relative of Verlaine, I would have slapped him without a doubt. A humble reader in the midst of an anonymous crowd, I know only the immortal poet. My joy is to love him, my duty is to absolve him for the evil he has done to others. (August C.E.1896; Vergani, p. 111)"

"I will also sign the petition for pardon for Oscar Wilde, provided that he gives his word of honor not to write any more. (December 6, C.E.1895; Vergani, p. 98)"

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

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

"The [[hare]'s lair, even if the hare is absent, is always full of fear. (September 23, C.E.1899; Vergani, p. 155)"

"If you want to make sure you're always doing your duty, do what you find unpleasant. (August 15, C.E.1898)"

"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)"

"Both I and the poor pig will not be appreciated until after we die. (October 1, C.E.1898; Vergani, p. 149)"