“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
“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.”
NatureAll Quotes by Gustave Flaubert
“Art requires neither complaisance nor politeness nothing but faith, faith and freedom.”
Art“Love is a springtime plant that perfumes everything with its hope, even the ruins to which it clings.”
Hope“Be regular and orderly in your life, so that you may be violent and original in your work.”
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.”
Age“Our ignorance of history causes us to slander our own times.”
History“The true poet for me is a priest. As soon as he dons the cassock, he must leave his family.”
Family“The heart, like the stomach, wants a varied diet.”
Diet“The cult of art gives pride one never has too much of it.”
Art“The future is the worst thing about the present.”
Future“Artists who seek perfection in everything are those who cannot attain it in anything.”
Art“Poetry is as precise a thing as geometry.”
Poetry“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“There is no truth. There is only perception.”
Truth“The art of writing is the art of discovering what you believe.”
Art“One mustn't ask apple trees for oranges, France for sun, women for love, life for happiness.”
Happiness“I love my work with a frenetic and perverse love, as an ascetic loves the hair shirt which scratches his belly.”
Work“The better a work is, the more it attracts criticism it is like the fleas who rush to jump on white linens.”
Work“I have the handicap of being born with a special language to which I alone have the key.”
Alone“Life must be a constant education one must learn everything, from speaking to dying.”
Education