To be stupid, selfish, and have good health are three requirements for happiness, though if stupidity is lacking, all is lost.
- Gustave Flaubert
Happiness, Stupid, Stupidity
Woman is a vulgar animal from whom man has created an excessively beautiful ideal.
- Gustave Flaubert
Beautiful, Woman, Ideal, Animal
I love my work with a frenetic and perverse love, as an ascetic loves the hair shirt which scratches his belly.
- Gustave Flaubert
Love, Belly, Which, Ascetic
Do not read, as children do, to amuse yourself, or like the ambitious, for the purpose of instruction. No, read in order to live.
- Gustave Flaubert
Children, Ambitious, Read, Amuse
Stupidity is something unshakable; nothing attacks it without breaking itself against it; it is of the nature of granite, hard and resistant.
- Gustave Flaubert
Nature, Stupidity, Against, Resistant
Language is a cracked kettle on which we beat out tunes for bears to dance to, while all the time we long to move the stars to pity.
- Gustave Flaubert
Move, Which, Tunes, Cracked
Love is a springtime plant that perfumes everything with its hope, even the ruins to which it clings.
- Gustave Flaubert
Love, Which, Springtime, Ruins
There is no truth. There is only perception.
- Gustave Flaubert
Truth, Only, Perception
One mustn't ask apple trees for oranges, France for sun, women for love, life for happiness.
- Gustave Flaubert
Love, Sun, Trees, Oranges
Be regular and orderly in your life, so that you may be violent and original in your work.
- Gustave Flaubert
Work, Original, Violent, Orderly
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
Rhythms, Which, Tap, Kettle
One mustn't look at the abyss, because there is at the bottom an inexpressible charm which attracts us.
- Gustave Flaubert
Charm, Which, Inexpressible, Attracts
The better a work is, the more it attracts criticism; it is like the fleas who rush to jump on white linens.
- Gustave Flaubert
White, Better, Like, Attracts
Artists who seek perfection in everything are those who cannot attain it in anything.
- Gustave Flaubert
Art, Artists, Cannot, Perfection
Our ignorance of history causes us to slander our own times.
- Gustave Flaubert
Ignorance, Times, Causes, Slander
I hate that which we have decided to call realism, even though I have been made one of its high priests.
- Gustave Flaubert
Been, Which, Though, Priests
Nothing is more humiliating than to see idiots succeed in enterprises we have failed in.
- Gustave Flaubert
Nothing, See, More, Enterprises
Poetry is as precise a thing as geometry.
- Gustave Flaubert
Poetry, Precise, Thing, Geometry
Everything one invents is true, you may be perfectly sure of that. Poetry is as precise as geometry.
- Gustave Flaubert
Poetry, Sure, Perfectly, Geometry
All one's inventions are true, you can be sure of that. Poetry is as exact a science as geometry.
- Gustave Flaubert
Science, Inventions, Sure, Geometry
The true poet for me is a priest. As soon as he dons the cassock, he must leave his family.
- Gustave Flaubert
Soon, Priest, His, True Poet
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
Bad, Irrelevant, Almost, Establish
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
Idiot, Constitution, Been, Ruin
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
Future, Feel, Rather, So-Called
The whole dream of democracy is to raise the proletarian to the level of stupidity attained by the bourgeois.
- Gustave Flaubert
Stupidity, Dream, Bourgeois, Proletarian
One arrives at style only with atrocious effort, with fanatical and devoted stubbornness.
- Gustave Flaubert
Style, Only, Devoted, Fanatical
A memory is a beautiful thing, it's almost a desire that you miss.
- Gustave Flaubert
Beautiful, Memory, Desire, Beautiful Thing
What an elder sees sitting; the young can't see standing.
- Gustave Flaubert
See, Standing, Sees, Sitting
Here is true immorality: ignorance and stupidity; the devil is nothing but this. His name is Legion.
- Gustave Flaubert
Stupidity, Here, Legion, Immorality
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
Work, Soul, Words, Flesh
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, Number, His, Calculate
Reality does not conform to the ideal, but confirms it.
- Gustave Flaubert
Reality, Ideal, Does, Conform
I believe that if one always looked at the skies, one would end up with wings.
- Gustave Flaubert
Inspirational, Always, I Believe
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.
- Gustave Flaubert
Book, Punches, Given, I Believe
I have the handicap of being born with a special language to which I alone have the key.
- Gustave Flaubert
Alone, Special, Which, Key
But the disparaging of those we love always alienates us from them to some extent. We must not touch our idols; the gilt comes off in our hands.
- Gustave Flaubert
Love, Always, Extent, Disparaging
Of all possible debauches, traveling is the greatest that I know; that's the one they invented when they got tired of all the others.
- Gustave Flaubert
Tired, Possible, Traveling, Invented
The faster the word sticks to the thought, the more beautiful is the effect.
- Gustave Flaubert
Beautiful, Thought, Faster, Sticks
A friend who dies, it's something of you who dies.
- Gustave Flaubert
Death, Friend, Something, Dies
Madame Bovary is myself.
- Gustave Flaubert
Myself, Madame
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
Work, Artist, Invisible, Creation
Art requires neither complaisance nor politeness; nothing but faith, faith and freedom.
- Gustave Flaubert
Art, Freedom, Nor, Requires
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, Rest, Nothing, Close
Happiness is a monstrosity! Punished are those who seek it.
- Gustave Flaubert
Happiness, Seek, Punished, Monstrosity
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.
- Gustave Flaubert
Artist, Caught, Badly, Monstrosity
The deplorable mania of doubt exhausts me. I doubt about everything, even my doubts.
- Gustave Flaubert
Me, Doubts, Even, Deplorable
I am a man-pen. I feel through the pen, because of the pen.
- Gustave Flaubert
I Am, Through, Feel, Pen
Of all lies, art is the least untrue.
- Gustave Flaubert
Art, Lies, Least, Untrue
The cult of art gives pride; one never has too much of it.
- Gustave Flaubert
Art, Never, Too, Cult
The author, in his work, must be like God in the Universe, present everywhere and visible nowhere.
- Gustave Flaubert
Nowhere, Visible, His, Present
The future is the worst thing about the present.
- Gustave Flaubert
Future, Worst Thing, About, Present
One must always hope when one is desperate, and doubt when one hopes.
- Gustave Flaubert
Doubt, Always, Desperate, Hopes
I 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.
- Gustave Flaubert
Conscience, Finally, Come, Calls
The more humanity advances, the more it is degraded.
- Gustave Flaubert
Humanity, More, Advances, Degraded
Exuberance is better than taste.
- Gustave Flaubert
Better, Taste, Than, Exuberance
It seems to me that I have always existed and that I possess memories that date back to the Pharaohs.
- Gustave Flaubert
Me, Date, Always, Seems
One can be the master of what one does, but never of what one feels.
- Gustave Flaubert
Brainy, Never, Feels, Master
The heart, like the stomach, wants a varied diet.
- Gustave Flaubert
Diet, Like, Wants, Varied
I love good sense above all, perhaps because I have none.
- Gustave Flaubert
Love, I Love, Good Sense, Perhaps
As a rule we disbelieve all the facts and theories for which we have no use.
- Gustave Flaubert
Use, Which, All The Facts, Disbelieve
One never tires of what is well written, style is life! It is the very blood of thought!
- Gustave Flaubert
Thought, Never, Very, Written
One mustn't always believe that feeling is everything. In the arts, it is nothing without form.
- Gustave Flaubert
Nothing, Always, Form, Arts
A superhuman will is needed in order to write, and I am only a man.
- Gustave Flaubert
I Am, Will, Needed, Superhuman
Life must be a constant education; one must learn everything, from speaking to dying.
- Gustave Flaubert
Education, Dying, Constant, Speaking
Writing is a dog's life, but the only life worth living.
- Gustave Flaubert
Worth Living, Living, Only, Dog
The art of writing is the art of discovering what you believe.
- Gustave Flaubert
Communication, Art, Writing, Discovering
Success is a consequence and must not be a goal.
- Gustave Flaubert
Success, Goal, Success Is, Consequence
Anything becomes interesting if you look at it long enough.
- Gustave Flaubert
Enough, Look, You, Interesting
Read in order to live.
- Gustave Flaubert
Live, Order, Read, Education
What is the beautiful, if not the impossible.
- Gustave Flaubert
Beautiful, Impossible
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