694 Quotes by Gustave Flaubert

By dint of railing at idiots, one runs the risk of becoming idiotic oneself

To see one's name in print! Some people commit a crime for no other reason.

Writing history is like drinking an ocean and pissing a cupful.

The rage for wanting to conclude is one of the most deadly and most fruitless manias to befall humanity. Each religion and each philosophy has pretended to have God to itself, to measure the infinite, and to know the recipe for happiness. What arrogance and what nonsense! I see, to the contrary, that the greatest geniuses and the greatest works have never concluded.

Tout ce qu'on invente est vrai, soi-en sure. La poesie est une chose aussi precise que la geometrie.

You can't find the soul with a scalpel.

As words have an effective power of their own, curses reported against someone might turn against the speaker.

Life is so horrible that one can only bear it by avoiding it. And that can be done by living in the world of art.

I like prostitution. My heart has never failed to pound at the sight of one of those provocatively dressed women walking in the rain under the gaslamps, just as the sight of monks in their robes and girdles touches some ascetic, hidden corner of my soul.