One can be the master of what one does, but never of what one feels. Gustave Flaubert More Quotes by Gustave Flaubert More Quotes From Gustave Flaubert It's a delicious thing to write. To be no longer yourself but to move in an entire universe of your own creating. Gustave Flaubert creatingwritingmoving For him the universe did not extend beyond the circumference of her petticoat. Gustave Flaubert universe Our ignorance of history causes us to slander our own times. The ordinary person today lives better than a king did a century ago but is ungrateful! Gustave Flaubert gratitudeignorancekings Whatever the thing you wish to say, there is but one word to express it, but one verb to give it movement, but one adjective to qualify it; you must seek until you find this noun, this verb, this adjective. Gustave Flaubert wishwritinggiving The whole dream of democracy is to raise the proletarian to the level of stupidity attained by the bourgeois. Gustave Flaubert freedomstupiddream 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 wallstrongart One mustn't ask apple trees for oranges, France for sun, women for love, life for happiness. Gustave Flaubert appleshappinesslove The deplorable mania of doubt exhausts me. I doubt about everything, even my doubts. Gustave Flaubert manialiteraturedoubt Are the days of winter sunshine just as sad for you, too? When it is misty, in the evenings, and I am out walking by myself, it seems to me that the rain is falling through my heart and causing it to crumble into ruins. Gustave Flaubert rainheartfall One's duty is to feel what is great, cherish the beautiful, and to not accept the conventions of society with the ignominy that it imposes upon us. Gustave Flaubert flannelscherishbeautiful It’s hard to communicate anything exactly and that’s why perfect relationships between people are difficult to find. Gustave Flaubert perfectrelationshippeople You don't know what it is to stay a whole day with your head in your hands trying to squeeze your unfortunate brain so as to find a word. Gustave Flaubert braintryinghands We must laugh and cry, enjoy and suffer, in a word, vibrate to our full capacity … I think that’s what being really human means. Gustave Flaubert laughingmeanthinking The hearts of women are like those little pieces of furniture with secret hiding - places, full of drawers fitted into each other; you go a lot of trouble, break your nails, and in the bottom find some withered flower, a few grains of dust - or emptiness! Gustave Flaubert dustflowerheart 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 floatinghairfood It is always sad to leave a place to which one knows one will never return. Gustave Flaubert returnknows A thing derided is a thing dead; a laughing man is stronger than a suffering man. Gustave Flaubert laughterlaughingmen For every bourgeois, in the heat of youth, if only for a day, for a minute, has believed himself capable of immense passions, of heroic enterprises. The most mediocre libertine has dreamed of oriental princesses; every rotary carries about inside him the debris of a poet. Gustave Flaubert rotaryprincesspassion We think of women at every age: while still children, we fondle with a naïve sensuality the breasts of those grown-up girls kissing us and cuddling us in their arms; at the age of ten, we dream of love; at fifteen, love comes along; at sixty, it is still with us, and if dead men in their tombs have any thought in their heads, it is how to make their way underground to the nearby grave, lift the shroud of the dear departed women, and mingle with her in her sleep Gustave Flaubert girldreamlove Stupidity consists in wanting to reach conclusions. We are a thread, and we want to know the whole cloth. Gustave Flaubert readingwisdomknowledge
