It seems to me that I have always existed and that I possess memories that date back to the Pharaohs. – 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
The only way to avoid being unhappy is to close yourself up in Art and to count for nothing all the rest. – Gustave Flaubert
One mustn’t look at the abyss, because there is at the bottom an inexpressible charm which attracts us. – Gustave Flaubert
The whole dream of democracy is to raise the proletarian to the level of stupidity attained by the bourgeois. – Gustave Flaubert
Here is true immorality: ignorance and stupidity; the devil is nothing but this. His name is Legion. – Gustave Flaubert
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
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
Stupidity is something unshakable; nothing attacks it without breaking itself against it; it is of the nature of granite, hard and resistant. – 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
Everything one invents is true, you may be perfectly sure of that. Poetry is as precise as geometry. – Gustave Flaubert
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
Artists who seek perfection in everything are those who cannot attain it in anything. – Gustave Flaubert
I hate that which we have decided to call realism, even though I have been made one of its high priests. – Gustave Flaubert
Nothing is more humiliating than to see idiots succeed in enterprises we have failed in. – Gustave Flaubert
