694 Quotes by Gustave Flaubert

When she had thus for a while struck the flint on her heart without getting a spark, incapable, moreover, of understanding what she did not experience as of believing anything that did not present itself in conventional forms she persuaded herself without difficulty that Charles's passion was nothing very exorbitant.

... totdeauna rămîne în conștiință ceva din sofismele strecurate în ea; păstrează un iz, ca după o băutură rea./ ... il reste toujours dans la conscience quelque chose des sophismes qu’on y a versés; elle en garde l’arrière-goût,comme d’une liqueur mauvaise.(©BeQ)

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

I was resting in the shadow of that ideal happiness as in the shade of the poisonous manchineel tree, without foreseeing the consequences.

Les dieux n'étant plus et le Christ n'étant pas encore, il y a eu, de Cicéron à Marc Aurèle, un moment unique où l'homme seul a été.

A man, at any rate, is free. He can explore the passions and the continents, can surmount obstacles, reach out to the most distant joys. Whereas a woman is constantly thwarted. At once inert and pliant, she has to contend with both physical weakness and legal subordination. Her will is like the veil on her bonnet, fastened by a single string and quivering at every breeze that blows. Always there is a desire that impels and a convention that restrains.

Elle ne demandait qu'à s'appuyer sur quelque chose plus solide que l'amour.

The denigration of those we love always detaches us from them in some degree. Never touch your idols: the gilding will stick to your fingers.

What happiness there had been in those days! What freedom! What hope! What an abundance of illusions! She had none left now. Each new venture had cost her some of them, each of her successive conditions: as virgin, wife and mistress; she had lost them all along the course of her life, like a traveler who leaves some of his wealth at every inn along the road.