694 Quotes by Gustave Flaubert

Reality does not conform to the ideal, but confirms it.

Snicker on hearing his name: 'the gentleman who thinks we are descended from the apes.'

Casting aspersions on those we love always does something to loosen our ties. We shouldn't maltreat our idols: the gilt comes off on our hands.

Life must be a constant education; one must learn everything, from speaking to dying.

And indeed, what is better than to sit by one's fireside in the evening with a book, while the wind beats against the window and the lamp is buring?

The principal thing in this world is to keep one's soul aloft.

A superhuman will is needed in order to write, and I am only a man.

Pleasure is found first in anticipation, later in memory.

I hate that which we have decided to call realism, even though I have been made one of its high priests.