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."

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

— Gustave Flaubert

Work

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

“Stupidity is something unshakable nothing attacks it without breaking itself against it it is of the nature of granite, hard and resistant.”

— Gustave Flaubert

Nature

“The only way to avoid being unhappy is to close yourself up in Art and to count for nothing all the rest.”

— Gustave Flaubert

Art

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

— Gustave Flaubert

Work

“Art requires neither complaisance nor politeness nothing but faith, faith and freedom.”

— Gustave Flaubert

Art

“Love is a springtime plant that perfumes everything with its hope, even the ruins to which it clings.”

— Gustave Flaubert

Hope

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

— Gustave Flaubert

Death

“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

“Poetry is as precise a thing as geometry.”

— Gustave Flaubert

Poetry

“Happiness is a monstrosity! Punished are those who seek it.”

— Gustave Flaubert

Happiness

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

— Gustave Flaubert

Poetry

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

— Gustave Flaubert

Future

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

— Gustave Flaubert

Family

“Success is a consequence and must not be a goal.”

— Gustave Flaubert

Success

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

— Gustave Flaubert

History

“One mustn't ask apple trees for oranges, France for sun, women for love, life for happiness.”

— Gustave Flaubert

Happiness

“The better a work is, the more it attracts criticism it is like the fleas who rush to jump on white linens.”

— Gustave Flaubert

Work

“Oh, if I had been loved at the age of seventeen, what an idiot I would be today. Happiness is like smallpox: if you catch it too soon, it can completely ruin your constitution.”

— Gustave Flaubert

Age

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

— Gustave Flaubert

Diet