Thought is the greatest of pleasures —pleasure itself is only imagination—have you ever enjoyed anything more than your dreams? Gustave Flaubert More Quotes by Gustave Flaubert More Quotes From Gustave Flaubert For a long time now my heart has had its shutters closed, its steps deserted, formerly a tumultuous hotel, but now empty and echoing like a great empty tomb. Gustave Flaubert steps heart long Put all your rage and madness into your work and live as orderly a life as possible. Gustave Flaubert orderly madness rage In the dark room a cloud of yellow dust flew from beneath the tool like a scatter of sparks from under the hooves of a galloping horse. The twin wheels turned and hummed. Binet was smiling, his chin down, his nostrils distended. He seemed lost in the kind of happiness which, as a rule, accompanies only those mediocre occupations that tickle the intelligence with easy difficulties, and satisfy it with a sense of achievement beyond which there is nothing left for dreams to feed on. Gustave Flaubert horse dark dream L'Ide e seule est e ternelle et ne cessaire. The idea alone is eternal and necessary. Gustave Flaubert eternal ideas 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 style soul flesh As you get older, the heart shed its leaves like a tree. You cannot hold out against certain winds. Each day tears away a few more leaves; and then there are the storms that break off several branches at one go. And while nature’s greenery grows back again in the spring, that of the heart never grows back. Gustave Flaubert break-off heart spring Je suis autant Chinois que Fran c° ais. I am as much Chinese as French. Gustave Flaubert chinese Stupidity lies in wanting to draw conclusions. Gustave Flaubert conclusion stupid lying But, in her life, nothing was going to happen. Such was the will of God! The future was a dark corridor, and at the far end the door was bolted. Gustave Flaubert ends dark doors COLD. Healthier than heat. Gustave Flaubert heat cold science Once one has kissed a cadaver's forehead, there always remains something of it on the lips, an infinite bitterness, an aftertasteof nothingness that nothing can erase. Gustave Flaubert cadavers bitterness death Mediocrity cherishes rules; as for me, I hate them; I feel for them and for every restriction, corporation, caste, hierarchy, level, herd, a loathing which fills my soul, and it is in this respect perhaps that I understand martyrdom. Gustave Flaubert respect hate soul Years passed; and he endured the idleness of his intelligence and the inertia of his heart. Gustave Flaubert inertia heart years You can't find the soul with a scalpel. Gustave Flaubert scalpels soul I have no use for the kind of God who goes walking in his garden with a stick, sends his friends to live in the bellies of whales, gives up the ghost with a groan and then comes back to life three days later! Gustave Flaubert whales giving-up garden On spinach: I dislike it, and am happy to dislike it because if I liked it I would eat it, and I cannot stand it. Gustave Flaubert culinary cooking food In her enthusiasms she had always looked for something tangible: she had always loved church for its flowers, music for its romantic words, literature for its power to stir the passions and she rebelled before the mysteries of faith just as she grew ever more restive under discipline, which was antipathetic to her nature. Gustave Flaubert passion discipline flower A good sentence in prose should be like a good line in poetry, unchangeable, as rhythmic, as sonorous. Gustave Flaubert prose lines should The faster the word sticks to the thought, the more beautiful is the effect. Gustave Flaubert sticks literature beautiful What seems beautiful to me, what I should like to write, is a book about nothing, a book dependent on nothing external, which would be held together by the strength of its style, just as the earth, suspended in the void, depends on nothing external for its support. Gustave Flaubert writing beautiful book
