The denigration of those we love always detaches us from them in some degree. Never touch your idols: the gilding will stick to your fingers. Gustave Flaubert More Quotes by Gustave Flaubert More Quotes From Gustave Flaubert The only way to avoid being unhappy is to close yourself up in Art and to count for nothing all the rest. Gustave Flaubert atheism unhappy art The principal thing in the world is to keep the soul aloft. Gustave Flaubert principal soul world [The artist] is like a pump; he has inside him a great pipe that reaches down into the entrails of things, the deepest layers. He sucks up what was lying there below, dim and unnoticed, and brings it in great jets to the sunlight. Gustave Flaubert artist inspirational lying I detest my fellow-beings and do not feel that I am their fellow at all Gustave Flaubert fellows speech feels We have all been beaten! Each one has to bear his misfortune! Resign yourself! Gustave Flaubert beaten misfortunes bears But the most wretched thing, is it not-is to drag out, as I do, a useless existence. If our pains were only of some use to someone, we should find consolation in the thought of the sacrifice. Gustave Flaubert sacrifice pain use 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. Gustave Flaubert annoyed states average Boredom, that silent spider, was spinning its web in the darkness in every corner of her heart. Gustave Flaubert boredom blessing heart A man is a critic when he cannot be an artist, in the same way that a man becomes an informer when he cannot be a soldier. Gustave Flaubert soldier men art Sometimes I think I'm liquefying like an old Camembert. Gustave Flaubert sometimes thinking One must laugh and weep, love, work, enjoy and suffer, in short vibrate as much as possible in all his being. Gustave Flaubert enjoy suffering laughing The true poet for me is a priest. As soon as he dons the cassock, he must leave his family. Gustave Flaubert priests poet literature Here is true immorality: ignorance and stupidity; the devil is nothing but this. His name is Legion. Gustave Flaubert ignorance stupid names He loved the extensive vaults where you could hear the night birds and the sea breeze; he loved the craggy ruins bound together by ivy, those dark halls, and any appearance of death and destruction. Having fallen so far from so high a position, he loved anything that had also fallen from a great height Gustave Flaubert sea-breeze dark night There are two infinities that confuse me: the one in my soul devours me; the one around me will crush me Gustave Flaubert crush soul two Art is nothing without form. Gustave Flaubert art-is form art Love, she thought, must come suddenly, with great outbursts and lightnings,--a hurricane of the skies, which falls upon life, revolutionises it, roots up the will like a leaf, and sweeps the whole heart into the abyss. Gustave Flaubert sky heart fall I'm absolutely removed from the world at such times...The hours go by without my knowing it. Sitting there I'm wandering in countries I can see every detail of - I'm playing a role in the story I'm reading. I actually feel I'm the characters - I live and breath with them. Gustave Flaubert reading character country I am finding it very hard to get my novel started. I suffer from stylistic abscesses; and sentences keep itching without coming to a head. Gustave Flaubert sentences novel suffering Noble characters and pure affections and happy scenes are very comforting things. They're a refuge from life's disillusionments. Gustave Flaubert noble comforting character
