That man has missed something who has never left a brothel at sunrise feeling like throwing himself into the river out of pure disgust.
Gustave Flaubert in Best Things Anybody Ever Said
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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.
quote by Gustave Flaubert
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A child of my own! Oh, no, no, no! Let my flesh perish with me, and let me not transmit to anyone the boredom and ignominiousness of life.
quote by Gustave Flaubert
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The human language is like a cracked kettle on which we beat out a tune for a dancing bear, when we hope with our music to move the stars.
Gustave Flaubert in Madame Bovary
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Stupidity is something unshakable; nothing attacks it without breaking itself against it; it is of the nature of granite, hard and resistant.
quote by Gustave Flaubert
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But the disparaging of those we love always alienates us from them to some extent. We must not touch our idols; the gilt comes off in our hands.
quote by Gustave Flaubert
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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.
quote by Gustave Flaubert
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I have come to have the firm conviction that vanity is the basis of everything, and finally that what one calls conscience is only inner vanity.
quote by Gustave Flaubert
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Judge the goodness of a book by the energy of the punches it has given you. I believe the greatest characteristic of genius, is, above all, force.
quote by Gustave Flaubert
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Caught up in life, you see it badly. You suffer from it or enjoy it too much. The artist, in my opinion, is a monstrosity, something outside of nature.
quote by Gustave Flaubert
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