Art requires neither complaisance nor politeness; nothing but faith, faith and freedom. – Gustave Flaubert
I have the handicap of being born with a special language to which I alone have the key. – Gustave Flaubert
All one’s inventions are true, you can be sure of that. Poetry is as exact a science as geometry. – Gustave Flaubert
Human speech is like a cracked kettle on which we tap crude rhythms for bears to dance to, while we long to make music that will melt the stars. – Gustave Flaubert
The deplorable mania of doubt exhausts me. I doubt about everything, even my doubts. – Gustave Flaubert
Do not read, as children do, to amuse yourself, or like the ambitious, for the purpose of instruction. No, read in order to live. – Gustave Flaubert
One mustn’t ask apple trees for oranges, France for sun, women for love, life for happiness. – Gustave Flaubert
Love is a springtime plant that perfumes everything with its hope, even the ruins to which it clings. – Gustave Flaubert
Life must be a constant education; one must learn everything, from speaking to dying. – Gustave Flaubert
One never tires of what is well written, style is life! It is the very blood of thought! – 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
But the disparaging of those we love always alienates us from them to some extent. We must not touch our idols; the gilt comes off in our hands. – Gustave Flaubert
I love my work with a frenetic and perverse love, as an ascetic loves the hair shirt which scratches his belly. – Gustave Flaubert
Be regular and orderly in your life, so that you may be violent and original in your work. – Gustave Flaubert
