Quotes by Gustave Flaubert

About Gustave Flaubert:

Gustave Flaubert is known especially for his first published novel, Madame Bovary (1857), for his Correspondence, and for his scrupulous devotion to his style and aesthetics. The celebrated short story writer Guy de Maupassant was a protégé of Flaubert.
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

And he beholds the moon; like a rounded fragment of ice filled with motionless light.

Gustave Flaubert

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

Gustave Flaubert

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

Gustave Flaubert

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

Gustave Flaubert

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

Gustave Flaubert

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

Gustave Flaubert

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

Gustave Flaubert

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

Gustave Flaubert

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

Gustave Flaubert

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

Gustave Flaubert

Read in order to live.

Gustave Flaubert

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

Gustave Flaubert

To be stupid, selfish, and have good health are three requirements for happiness, though if stupidity is lacking, all is lost.

Gustave Flaubert

I love good sense above all, perhaps because I have none.

Gustave Flaubert

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

The future is the worst thing about the present.

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 author, in his work, must be like God in the Universe, present everywhere and visible nowhere.

Gustave Flaubert

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

Gustave Flaubert

Be regular and orderly in your life, so that you may be violent and original in your work.

Gustave Flaubert

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

Gustave Flaubert

Author Bio

  • NameGustave Flaubert
  • Description1821-1880 French writer
  • BornDecember 12, 1821
  • DiedMay 8, 1880
  • CountryFrance
  • ProfessionWriter; Novelist
  • Works