“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
“Be regular and orderly in your life, so that you may be violent and original in your work.”
WorkAll Quotes by Gustave Flaubert
“Stupidity is something unshakable nothing attacks it without breaking itself against it it is of the nature of granite, hard and resistant.”
Nature“The only way to avoid being unhappy is to close yourself up in Art and to count for nothing all the rest.”
Art“I love my work with a frenetic and perverse love, as an ascetic loves the hair shirt which scratches his belly.”
Work“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“A friend who dies, it's something of you who dies.”
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.”
Nature“Poetry is as precise a thing as geometry.”
Poetry“Happiness is a monstrosity! Punished are those who seek it.”
Happiness“All one's inventions are true, you can be sure of that. Poetry is as exact a science as geometry.”
Poetry“The future is the worst thing about the present.”
Future“The true poet for me is a priest. As soon as he dons the cassock, he must leave his family.”
Family“Success is a consequence and must not be a goal.”
Success“Our ignorance of history causes us to slander our own times.”
History“One mustn't ask apple trees for oranges, France for sun, women for love, life for happiness.”
Happiness“The better a work is, the more it attracts criticism it is like the fleas who rush to jump on white linens.”
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“To be stupid, selfish, and have good health are three requirements for happiness, though if stupidity is lacking, all is lost.”
Happiness“The heart, like the stomach, wants a varied diet.”
Diet