Gustave Flaubert Quotes About Soul

Quotes about: Soul

• Doesn't it seem to you," asked Madame Bovary, "that the mind moves more freely in the presence of that boundless expanse, that the sight of it elevates the soul and gives rise to thoughts of the infinite and the ideal?

  Gustave Flaubert

  Ocean, Moving, Sight

• [T]he truth is that fullness of soul can sometimes overflow in utter vapidity of language, for none of us can ever express the exact measure of his needs or his thoughts or his sorrows; and human speech is like a cracked kettle on which we tap crude rhythms for bears to dance to, while we long to make music that will melt the stars.

  Gustave Flaubert

  Stars, Long, Soul

  Madame Bovary pt. 1, ch. 12 (1857) (translation by Francis Steegmuller)

• Everyone, either from modesty or egotism, hides away the best and most delicate of his soul’s possessions; to gain the esteem of others, we must only ever show our ugliest sides; this is how we keep ourselves on the common level

  Gustave Flaubert

  Soul, Identity, Levels

• I invite all brats to throw their cookies at the baker's head if they're not sweet, winos to chuck their wine if it's bad, the dying to shuck their souls when they croak, and men to throw their existence in God's face when it's bitter

  Gustave Flaubert

  Sweet, Wine, Men

  Gustave Flaubert (1991). “Early Writings”, p.44, U of Nebraska Press

• The principal thing in this world is to keep one's soul aloft.

  Gustave Flaubert

  Soul, World, This World

  Gustave Flaubert, Francis Steegmuller (1982). “The Letters of Gustave Flaubert: 1857-1880”, p.205, Harvard University Press

• There are two infinities that confuse me: the one in my soul devours me; the one around me will crush me

  Gustave Flaubert

  Crush, Two, Soul

• Style is as much under the words as in the words. It is as much the soul as it is the flesh of a work.

  Gustave Flaubert

  Soul, Style, Flesh

• How we keep these dead souls in our hearts. Each one of us carries within himself his necropolis.

  Gustave Flaubert

  Heart, Soul, Carrie

  Gustave Flaubert (2015). “The Complete Works of Gustave Flaubert: Novels, Short Stories, Plays, Memoirs and Letters: Original Versions of the Novels and Stories in French, An Interactive Bilingual Edition with Literary Essays on Flaubert by Guy de Maupassant, Virginia Woolf, Henry James, D.H. Lawrence”, p.1520, e-artnow

• I like prostitution. My heart has never failed to pound at the sight of one of those provocatively dressed women walking in the rain under the gaslamps, just as the sight of monks in their robes and girdles touches some ascetic, hidden corner of my soul.

  Gustave Flaubert

  Rain, Heart, Sight

• The most important thing in the world is to hold your soul aloft.

  Gustave Flaubert

  Karma, Fathers Day, Soul

• I had, as I told you, a great passion while still almost a child. When it was over, I divided myself in two, placing on one side the soul I kept for Art, and on the other, my body, which would have to fend for itself.

  Gustave Flaubert

  Love, Art, Children

• Mediocrity cherishes rules; as for me, I hate them; I feel for them and for every restriction, corporation, caste, hierarchy, level, herd, a loathing which fills my soul, and it is in this respect perhaps that I understand martyrdom.

  Gustave Flaubert

  Respect, Hate, Soul

• You can't find the soul with a scalpel.

  Gustave Flaubert

  Soul, Scalpels

  Gustave Flaubert (1976). “Bouvard and Pécuchet”, Penguin Books

• The principal thing in the world is to keep the soul aloft.

  Gustave Flaubert

  Soul, World, Principal

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