Gustave Flaubert Quotes (135 Quotes)

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.

Judge the goodness of a book by the energy of the punches it has given you. I believe the greatest characteristic of genius, is, above all, force.

It seems to me that I have always existed and that I possess memories that date back to the Pharaohs.

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

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

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

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

Success as I see it, is a result, not a goal.

By dint of railing at idiots, one runs the risk of becoming idiotic oneself

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

Equality is slavery. That is why I love art.

Stupidity is something unshakable; nothing attacks it without breaking itself against it; it is of the nature of granite, hard and resistant.

Reality does not conform to the ideal, but confirms it.

My kingdom is as wide as the world, and my desire has no limit. I go forward always, freeing spirits and weighing worlds, without fear, without compassion, without love, and without God. Men call me Science.

Books are made not like children but like pyramids and they're just as useless And they stay in the desert Jackals piss at their foot and the bourgeois climb up on them.

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

One can be the master of what one does, but never of what one feels.

The author in his book must be like God in his universe, everywhere present and nowhere visible.

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

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

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

Exuberance is better than taste.

My kingdom is as wide as the universe and my wants have no limits. I go forward always, freeing spirits and weighing worlds, without fear, without compassion, without love, without God. I am called Science.

The artist ought no more to appear in his work than God in nature.

A superhuman will is needed in order to write, and I am only a man.

Writing is a dog's life, but the only life worth living.

Read much, but not many books.

The faster the word sticks to the thought, the more beautiful is the effect.

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

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

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.

Caught up in life, you see it badly. You suffer from it or enjoy it too much. The artist, in my opinion, is a monstrosity, something outside of nature.

Human speech is like a cracked cauldron on which we bang out tunes that make bears dance, when what we want is to move the stars to pity

The future is the worst thing about the present.

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

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

Me and my books in the same apartment, like a gherkin in its vinegar.

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

One must always hope when one is desperate, and doubt when one hopes.

I go from exasperation to a state of collapse, then I recover and go from prostration to Fury, so that my average state is one of being annoyed.

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

The deplorable mania of doubt exhausts me. I doubt about everything, even my doubts.

Human speech is a cracked cauldron on which we knock out tunes for dancing bears, when we wish to conjure pity from the stars.

Success is a consequence and must not be a goal.

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.

Our ignorance of history causes us to slander our own times.

I maintain that ideas are events. It is more difficult to make them interesting, I know, but if you fail the style is at fault.

By dint of railing at idiots you run the risk of becoming idiotic yourself

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.

The more humanity advances, the more it is degraded.