Gustave Flaubert

Find the best quotes, maxims and aphorisms of Gustave Flaubert

Biography : French novelist.
Born: 1821 - Died: 1880
Period:
19th century
Place of birth: France
France

France

Gustave Flaubert - Quotes

Idiots: Those who do not think like us.
Gustave Flaubert - Dictionary of Received Ideas /

to think

I believe that if one always looked at the skies, one would end up with wings.
Gustave Flaubert /

I believe that if one always looked at the skies, one would end up with wings.

Background photo by Stephen Leonardi on Unsplash

An infinity of passion can be contained in one minute, like a crowd in a small space.
Gustave Flaubert - Madame Bovary /

Philosophy: Should always be snickered at.
Gustave Flaubert - Dictionary of Received Ideas /

philosophy

Love is a springtime plant that perfumes everything with its hope.
Gustave Flaubert /

I want to live through three or four more books.
Gustave Flaubert /

Fear: Gives one wings.
Gustave Flaubert - Dictionary of Received Ideas /

To have talent, you must be convinced that you possess it.
Gustave Flaubert /

talent

The true poet for me is a priest. As soon as he dons the cassock, he must leave his family.
Gustave Flaubert

The cult of art gives pride one never has too much of it.
Gustave Flaubert

art

There are neither good nor bad subjects. From the point of view of pure Art, you could almost establish it as an axiom that the subject is irrelevant, style itself being an absolute manner of seeing things.
Gustave Flaubert

art

The only way to avoid being unhappy is to close yourself up in Art and to count for nothing all the rest.
Gustave Flaubert

art

I have the handicap of being born with a special language to which I alone have the key.
Gustave Flaubert

The artist must be in his work as God is in creation, invisible and all-powerful one must sense him everywhere but never see him.
Gustave Flaubert

The art of writing is the art of discovering what you believe.
Gustave Flaubert

art

I love my work with a frenetic and perverse love, as an ascetic loves the hair shirt which scratches his belly.
Gustave Flaubert

Oh, if I had been loved at the age of seventeen, what an idiot I would be today. Happiness is like smallpox: if you catch it too soon, it can completely ruin your constitution.
Gustave Flaubert

happiness

All one's inventions are true, you can be sure of that. Poetry is as exact a science as geometry.
Gustave Flaubert

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

The heart, like the stomach, wants a varied diet.
Gustave Flaubert

heart

Artists who seek perfection in everything are those who cannot attain it in anything.
Gustave Flaubert

Of all lies, art is the least untrue.
Gustave Flaubert

art

Happiness is a monstrosity! Punished are those who seek it.
Gustave Flaubert

happiness

A friend who dies, it's something of you who dies.
Gustave Flaubert

The better a work is, the more it attracts criticism it is like the fleas who rush to jump on white linens.
Gustave Flaubert

Everything one invents is true, you may be perfectly sure of that. Poetry is as precise as geometry.
Gustave Flaubert

poetry

The most glorious moments in your life are not the so-called days of success, but rather those days when out of dejection and despair you feel rise in you a challenge to life, and the promise of future accomplishments.
Gustave Flaubert

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

Poetry is as precise a thing as geometry.
Gustave Flaubert

The future is the worst thing about the present.
Gustave Flaubert