“I love my work with a frenetic and perverse love, as an ascetic loves the hair shirt which scratches his belly.”
Work
“Our ignorance of history causes us to slander our own times.”
HistoryAll Quotes by Gustave Flaubert
“I believe that if one always looked at the skies, one would end up with wings.”
Nature“Be regular and orderly in your life, so that you may be violent and original in your work.”
Work“Artists who seek perfection in everything are those who cannot attain it in anything.”
Art“Poetry is as precise a thing as geometry.”
Poetry“Success is a consequence and must not be a goal.”
Success“Everything one invents is true, you may be perfectly sure of that. Poetry is as precise as geometry.”
Poetry“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.”
Art“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.”
Future“I have the handicap of being born with a special language to which I alone have the key.”
Alone“One must always hope when one is desperate, and doubt when one hopes.”
Hope“Life must be a constant education one must learn everything, from speaking to dying.”
Education“Love is a springtime plant that perfumes everything with its hope, even the ruins to which it clings.”
Hope“The only way to avoid being unhappy is to close yourself up in Art and to count for nothing all the rest.”
Art“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.”
Music“To be stupid, selfish, and have good health are three requirements for happiness, though if stupidity is lacking, all is lost.”
Happiness“Caught up in life, you see it badly. You suffer from it or enjoy it too much. The artist, in my opinion, is a monstrosity, something outside of nature.”
Nature“The future is the worst thing about the present.”
Future“There is no truth. There is only perception.”
Truth“A friend who dies, it's something of you who dies.”
Death