A cold in the head causes less suffering than an idea.
—Jules Renard
Topics: Ideas, Suffering
Don’t tell a woman she’s pretty; tell her there’s no other woman like her, and all roads will open to you.
—Jules Renard
Topics: Praise, Compliments
Truth makes many appeals, not the least of which is its power to shock.
—Jules Renard
Topics: Truth
I don’t know if God exists, but it would be better for His reputation if He didn’t.
—Jules Renard
Topics: Atheism
We are so happy to advise others that occasionally we even do it in their interest.
—Jules Renard
Topics: Advice
If you are afraid of being lonely, don’t try to be right.
—Jules Renard
Topics: Loneliness, Solitude
Socialism must come down from the brain and reach the heart.
—Jules Renard
Topics: Communism, Socialism
Talent is a matter of quantity. Talent does not write on page, it writes three hundred.
—Jules Renard
Topics: Talent
We spend our lives talking about this mystery. Our life.
—Jules Renard
Topics: Existence
The only man who is really free is the one who can turn down an invitation to dinner without giving an excuse.
—Jules Renard
Topics: Excuses
I finally know what distinguishes man from the other beasts: financial worries.
—Jules Renard
Topics: Money, Worry
There are places and moments in which one is so completely alone that one sees the world entire.
—Jules Renard
Topics: Solitude
Writing is the only profession where no one considers you ridiculous if you earn no money.
—Jules Renard
Topics: Literature, Books, Writing
I am never bored anywhere: being bored is an insult to oneself.
—Jules Renard
Topics: Boredom
Love is like an hour-glass, with the heart filling up as the brain empties.
—Jules Renard
Topics: Kindness
The reward of great men is that, long after they have died, one is not quite sure that they are dead.
—Jules Renard
Topics: Results
Failure is not the only punishment for laziness;
there is also the success of others.
—Jules Renard
Topics: Failure, Laziness
There are moments when everything goes well, but don’t be frightened.
—Jules Renard
Topics: Fear
Writing is the only way to talk without being interrupted.
—Jules Renard
Topics: Writing
Words are the coins making up the currency of sentences, and there are always too many small coins.
—Jules Renard
Topics: Words
Fame is a constant effort
—Jules Renard
Topics: Fame
The ideal of calm exists in a sitting cat.
—Jules Renard
Topics: Cats
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.
—Jules Renard
Topics: Writing
A beautiful line of verse has twelve feet, and two wings.
—Jules Renard
Topics: Poetry, Poets
Be modest! It is the kind of pride least likely to offend.
—Jules Renard
Topics: Pride
When people are bored, it is primarily with their own selves that they are bored.
—Jules Renard
Topics: Boredom
There are good and bad times, but our mood changes more often than our fortune.
—Jules Renard
Topics: Fortune, Anger, Bad Times
On earth there is no heaven, but there are pieces of it.
—Jules Renard
Topics: Heaven
It’s not how old you are, it’s how you are old.
—Jules Renard
Literature is an occupation in which you have to keep proving your talent o people who have none.
—Jules Renard
Topics: Occupation
Wondering Whom to Read Next?
- Jean Cocteau French Poet, Artist
- Gustave Flaubert French Novelist
- Jean Giono French Novelist
- Guy de Maupassant French Short-story Writer
- Victor Hugo French Novelist
- Michel Houellebecq French Author
- Andre Gide French Novelist
- Anatole France French Novelist
- Marcel Proust French Novelist
- Remy de Gourmont French Poet, Writer
Leave a Reply