Gustave Flaubert Quotes - Page 3

Quotes about:

• You can calculate the worth of a man by the number of his enemies, and the importance of a work of art by the harm that is spoken of it.

  Gustave Flaubert

  Art, Men, Numbers

  Letter to Louise Colet, 14 June 1853

  10 Copy quote

• Since you are now studying geometry and trigonometry, I will give you a problem. A ship sails the ocean. It left Boston with a cargo of wool. It grosses 200 tons. It is bound for Le Havre. The mainmast is broken, the cabin boy is on deck, there are 12 passengers aboard, the wind is blowing East-North-East, the clock points to a quarter past three in the afternoon. It is the month of May. How old is the captain?

  Gustave Flaubert

  Ocean, Math, Boys

  72 Copy quote

• A man is a critic when he cannot be an artist, in the same way that a man becomes an informer when he cannot be a soldier.

  Gustave Flaubert

  Art, Men, Soldier

  76 Copy quote

• Writing history is like drinking an ocean and pissing a cupful.

  Gustave Flaubert

  Drinking, Ocean, Writing

  21 Copy quote

• I have dreamed much and have done very little.

  Gustave Flaubert

  Done, Littles

  Gustave Flaubert, George Sand (2015). “The Correspondence of George Sand and Gustave Flaubert: Collected Letters of the Most Influential French Authors”, p.29, e-artnow

  7 Copy quote

• I am an obscure and patient pearl-fisherman who dives into the deepest waters and comes up with empty hands and a blue face. Some fatal attraction draws me down into the abysses of thought, down into those innermost recesses which never cease to fascinate the strong. I shall spend my life gazing at the ocean of art, where others voyage or fight; and from time to time I’ll entertain myself by diving for those green and yellow shells that nobody will want. So I shall keep them for myself and cover the walls of my hut with them.

  Gustave Flaubert

  Art, Strong, Wall

  51 Copy quote

• You must write for yourself, above all. That is your only hope of creating something beautiful.

  Gustave Flaubert

  Beautiful, Writing, Creating

  14 Copy quote

• Everyone became brave from excess of terror.

  Gustave Flaubert

  Courage, Brave, Excess

  Gustave Flaubert (2005). “Salammbo”, p.98, Penguin UK

  8 Copy quote

• Of all the icy blasts that blow on love, a request for money is the most chilling.

  Gustave Flaubert

  Blow, Icy, Chill

  Gustave Flaubert (1992). “Madame Bovary”

  7 Copy quote

• One mustn't ask apple trees for oranges, France for sun, women for love, life for happiness.

  Gustave Flaubert

  Love, Happiness, Apples

  28 Copy quote

• The whole dream of democracy is to raise the proletarian to the level of stupidity attained by the bourgeois.

  Gustave Flaubert

  Dream, Freedom, Stupid

  51 Copy quote

• Stupidity lies in wanting to draw conclusions.

  Gustave Flaubert

  Lying, Stupid, Conclusion

  9 Copy quote

• What an awful thing life is, isn’t it? It’s like soup with lots of hairs floating on the surface. You have to eat it nevertheless.

  Gustave Flaubert

  Food, Hair, Floating

  35 Copy quote

• After a person dies, there is always something like a feeling of stupefaction, so difficult is it to comprehend this unexpected advent of nothingness and to resign oneself to believing it.

  Gustave Flaubert

  Death, Believe, Feelings

  17 Copy quote

• The more you approach infinity, the deeper you penetrate terror

  Gustave Flaubert

  Infinity, Terror, Approach

  7 Copy quote

• Stupidity consists in wanting to reach conclusions. We are a thread, and we want to know the whole cloth.

  Gustave Flaubert

  Wisdom, Reading, Knowledge

  26 Copy quote

• For him the universe did not extend beyond the circumference of her petticoat.

  Gustave Flaubert

  Universe

  Gustave Flaubert (2015). “Greatest Works of Gustave Flaubert: Madame Bovary, Senitmental Education, November, A Simple Heart, Herodias and more”, p.33, e-artnow

  30 Copy quote

• She wanted to die, but she also wanted to live in Paris.

  Gustave Flaubert

  Paris, Wanted To Die, Wanted

  16 Copy quote

• What an elder sees sitting; the young can't see standing.

  Gustave Flaubert

  Sitting, Standing Alone, Young

  15 Copy quote

• I know nothing more noble than the contemplation of the world.

  Gustave Flaubert

  Noble, World, Contemplation

  6 Copy quote

• It is necessary to sleep upon the pillow of doubt.

  Gustave Flaubert

  Sleep, Doubt, Pillow

  Gustave Flaubert (2016). “Bouvard and Pecuchet: A Tragi-Comic Novel of Bourgeois Life”, p.501, The Floating Press

  14 Copy quote

• Life must be a constant education; one must learn everything, from speaking to dying.

  Gustave Flaubert

  Talking, Dying, Constant

  27 Copy quote

• What wretched poverty of language! To compare stars to diamonds!

  Gustave Flaubert

  Stars, Poverty, Language

  7 Copy quote

• What is beautiful is moral, that is all there is to it.

  Gustave Flaubert

  Beautiful, Moral

  Correspondence to Guy de Maupassant, October 26, 1880.

  5 Copy quote

• Love is a springtime plant that perfumes everything with its hope, even the ruins to which it clings.

  Gustave Flaubert

  Love, Literature, Ruins

  Gustave Flaubert, Francis Steegmuller (1980). “The Letters of Gustave Flaubert: 1830-1857”, p.83, Harvard University Press

  23 Copy quote

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