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

— Gustave Flaubert

Work

All Quotes by Gustave Flaubert

“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

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

— Gustave Flaubert

Poetry

“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

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

— Gustave Flaubert

Art

“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

“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

“The art of writing is the art of discovering what you believe.”

— Gustave Flaubert

Art

“I have the handicap of being born with a special language to which I alone have the key.”

— Gustave Flaubert

Alone

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

— Gustave Flaubert

Happiness

“Everything one invents is true, you may be perfectly sure of that. Poetry is as precise as geometry.”

— Gustave Flaubert

Poetry

“The cult of art gives pride one never has too much of it.”

— Gustave Flaubert

Art

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

— Gustave Flaubert

Happiness

“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

“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

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

— Gustave Flaubert

Success

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

— Gustave Flaubert

Happiness

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

— Gustave Flaubert

Work

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

— Gustave Flaubert

Family

“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

“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