Gustave FlaubertI have come to have the firm conviction that vanity is the basis of everything, and finally that what one calls conscience is only inner vanity.372Humanity
Gustave FlaubertShe did not believe that things could remain the same in different places, and since the portion of her life that lay behind her had been bad, no doubt that which remained to be l… ▶372Life
Gustave FlaubertShe remembered the heroines of novels she had read, and the lyrical legion of those adulterous women began to sing in her memory with sisterly voices that enchanted her. Now she s… ▶361LifeReadingTruth
Gustave FlaubertStupidity lies in wanting to draw conclusions.351Sadness
Gustave FlaubertYou forget everything. The hours slip by. You travel in your chair through centuries you seem seem to see before you, your thoughts are caught up in the story, dallying with the d… ▶351LoveThought
Gustave FlaubertYou need a high degree of corruption or a very big heart to love absolutely everything ✨ Gustave Flaubert (2005). November: Fragments in a Nondescript Style, Hesperus Press<… ▶362Love
Gustave FlaubertAre the days of winter sunshine just as sad for you, too? When it is misty, in the evenings, and I am out walking by myself, it seems to me that the rain is falling through my hea… ▶362LoveSadness
Gustave FlaubertIn her enthusiasms she had always looked for something tangible: she had always loved church for its flowers, music for its romantic words, literature for its power to stir the pa… ▶352HopeLovePolitics
Gustave FlaubertA memory is a beautiful thing, it's almost a desire that you miss.364Life
Gustave FlaubertAll you have to do to make something interesting is to look at it long enough.375Politics
Gustave FlaubertI am irritated by my own writing. I am like a violinist whose ear is true, but whose fingers refuse to reproduce precisely the sound he hears within.364Truth
Gustave FlaubertIt's a delicious thing to write. To be no longer yourself but to move in an entire universe of your own creating. ✨ Gustave Flaubert, Francis Steegmuller (1980). The Letters… ▶332Thought
Gustave FlaubertThe future is the worst thing about the present. ✨ Gustave Flaubert, Francis Steegmuller (1980). The Letters of Gustave Flaubert: 1830-1857, p.8, Harvard University Press332HopeTime
Gustave FlaubertEverything one invents is true, you may be perfectly sure of that. Poetry is as precise as geometry. ✨ Letter to Madame Louise Colet, August 14, 1853.376Truth
Gustave FlaubertI don't believe that happiness is possible, but I think tranquility is. ✨ Gustave Flaubert, (Ivan Sergeevič) Turgenev (1985). Flaubert and Turgenev, a Friendship in Letters:… ▶343Thought
Gustave FlaubertIt is an excellent habit to look at things as so many symbols.376Sadness
Gustave FlaubertShe wanted to die, but she also wanted to live in Paris.354Death
Gustave FlaubertBoredom, that silent spider, was spinning its web in the darkness in every corner of her heart. ✨ Gustave Flaubert (2010). Madame Bovary: (Penguin Classics Deluxe Edition), … ▶332Love
Gustave FlaubertOf all lies, art is the least untrue. ✨ Gustave Flaubert, Francis Steegmuller (1980). The Letters of Gustave Flaubert: 1830-1857, p.52, Harvard University Press366Truth
Gustave FlaubertMaybe happiness too is a metaphor invented on a day of boredom ✨ Gustave Flaubert (2005). November: Fragments in a Nondescript Style, Hesperus Press333Thought
Gustave FlaubertBut, in her life, nothing was going to happen. Such was the will of God! The future was a dark corridor, and at the far end the door was bolted. ✨ Gustave Flaubert, Geoffrey… ▶355HopeLifeTime
Gustave FlaubertTalent is a long patience, and originality an effort of will and intense observation.311Reflection
Gustave FlaubertTo be simple is no small matter. ✨ Gustave Flaubert (2010). Madame Bovary: (Penguin Classics Deluxe Edition), p.7, Penguin355Humor
Gustave FlaubertAnd the more he was irritated by her basic personality, the more he was drawn to her by a harsh, bestial sensuality, illusions of a moment, which ended in hate.366Time
Gustave FlaubertSuccess is a consequence and must not be a goal.301Love
Gustave FlaubertThe art of writing is the art of discovering what you believe.367Politics
Gustave FlaubertWhat a heavy oar the pen is, and what a strong current ideas are to row in! ✨ Gustave Flaubert, Francis Steegmuller (1980). The Letters of Gustave Flaubert: 1830-1857, p.151… ▶334Thought
Gustave FlaubertWhat baffled him was that there should be all this fuss about something so simple as love.334Love
Gustave FlaubertOn certain occasions art can shake very ordinary spirits, and whole worlds can be revealed by its clumsiest interpreters. ✨ Gustave Flaubert (1976). Bouvard and Pécuchet, Pe… ▶378Reading
Gustave FlaubertWhat is the beautiful, if not the impossible. ✨ Gustave Flaubert, Francis Steegmuller (1980). The Letters of Gustave Flaubert: 1830-1857, p.7, Harvard University Press334Reading
