The whole dream of democracy is to raise the proletarian to the level of stupidity attained by the bourgeois.

quote by Gustave Flaubert
Added by Lucian Velea
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I love my work with a frenetic and perverse love, as an ascetic loves the hair shirt which scratches his belly.

quote by Gustave Flaubert
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Do not read as children do to enjoy themselves, or, as the ambitious do to educate themselves. No, read to live.

quote by Gustave Flaubert
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One becomes a critic when one cannot be an artist, just as a man becomes a stool pigeon when he cannot be a soldier.

quote by Gustave Flaubert
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Human speech is a cracked cauldron on which we knock out tunes for dancing bears, when we wish to conjure pity from the stars.

Gustave Flaubert in Madame Bovary
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To be stupid, selfish, and have good health are three requirements for happiness, though if stupidity is lacking, all is lost.

quote by Gustave Flaubert
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Do not read, as children do, to amuse yourself, or like the ambitious, for the purpose of instruction. No, read in order to live.

quote by Gustave Flaubert
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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.

quote by Gustave Flaubert
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Language is a cracked kettle on which we beat out tunes for bears to dance to, while all the time we long to move the stars to pity.

quote by Gustave Flaubert
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Of all possible debauches, traveling is the greatest that I know; that's the one they invented when they got tired of all the others.

quote by Gustave Flaubert
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