Gustave Flaubert

Gustave Flaubert

35 quotes

As a French novelist, Gustave Flaubert earned a lasting place in the canon of memorable quotations. Their thinking spans from Art to Work, revealing a mind that refused to stay in one lane. 46 of Gustave Flaubert's sharpest quotes live here, spanning themes of Art, Work, Happiness, Poetry, and Nature. One quote that captures their voice: "Success is a consequence and must not be a goal."

“The future is the worst thing about the present.”

— Gustave Flaubert

Future

All Quotes by 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

Music

“To be stupid, selfish, and have good health are three requirements for happiness, though if stupidity is lacking, all is lost.”

— Gustave Flaubert

Happiness

“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

God

“I believe that if one always looked at the skies, one would end up with wings.”

— Gustave Flaubert

Nature

“The true poet for me is a priest. As soon as he dons the cassock, he must leave his family.”

— Gustave Flaubert

Family

“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

Art

“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

Art

“A friend who dies, it's something of you who dies.”

— Gustave Flaubert

Death

“Artists who seek perfection in everything are those who cannot attain it in anything.”

— Gustave Flaubert

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.”

— Gustave Flaubert

Future

“Of all lies, art is the least untrue.”

— Gustave Flaubert

Art

“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.”

— Gustave Flaubert

Nature

“I love my work with a frenetic and perverse love, as an ascetic loves the hair shirt which scratches his belly.”

— Gustave Flaubert

Work

“Poetry is as precise a thing as geometry.”

— Gustave Flaubert

Poetry

“The heart, like the stomach, wants a varied diet.”

— Gustave Flaubert

Diet

“All one's inventions are true, you can be sure of that. Poetry is as exact a science as geometry.”

— Gustave Flaubert

Poetry

“Our ignorance of history causes us to slander our own times.”

— Gustave Flaubert

History

“One must always hope when one is desperate, and doubt when one hopes.”

— Gustave Flaubert

Hope

“Life must be a constant education one must learn everything, from speaking to dying.”

— Gustave Flaubert

Education

“Be regular and orderly in your life, so that you may be violent and original in your work.”

— Gustave Flaubert

Work