Writing is a way of talking without being interrupted.
Jules RenardRead
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.
Interpretation
The quote expresses a desire for greater awareness and appreciation of life rather than longing for a different life.
Jules Renard reflects on the notion that if he had the chance to live his life again, he wouldn't wish for any changes to the events that transpired. Instead, he wishes for a broader perspective, implying that a deeper understanding and awareness of life's experiences can enhance one's appreciation for the journey they have taken.
In practice
In a motivational speech about embracing life's challenges.
Writing is a way of talking without being interrupted.
If one were to build the house of happiness, the largest space would be the waiting room.
When I think of all the books still left for me to read, I am certain of further happiness.
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.
Literature is an occupation in which you have to keep proving your talent to people who have none
I have no religion,β says Borneau, βbut I respect the religion of others. Religion is sacred.β Why this privilege, this immunity?... A believer creates God in his own image; if he is ugly, his God will be morally ugly. Why should moral ugliness be respectable?
To me this is the first principle of life, the foundational principle, and a lesson you can't learn at the feet of any wise man: Get up! The art of living is simply getting up after you've been knocked down.
Our lives disconnect and reconnect, we move on, and later we may again touch one another, again bounce away. This is the felt shape of a human life, neither simply linear nor wholly disjunctive nor endlessly bifurcating, but rather this bouncey-castle sequence of bumpings-into and tumblings-apart.
All the time, I've felt that life is a wager and that I probably was getting more out of leading a bohemian existence as a writer than I would have if I didn't.
A man takes his sadness down to the river and throws it in the river ββββββββββββββββββββbut then heβs still left with the river. A man takes his sadness and throws it away ββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββββbut then heβs still left with his hands.
In really bad times, the hungriest would gather at his door at nightfall, vying for the chance to earn a few coins to feed their families by selling their bodies. Had I been older when my father died, I might have been among them. Instead I learned to hunt.
I'm OK. Much better than on other occasions. It's true that I've made lots of mistakes but I've never tried to bother anyone. I want to stay alive, preferably in peace, without seeing every one of my mistakes in the papers, and on many occasions, even stories that are lies.
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