Quotations from

Gustave Flaubert

About

Picture of Gustave Flaubert

Gustave Flaubert (UK: FLOH-bair, US: floh-BAIR; French: [ɡystav flobɛʁ]; 12 December 1821 – 8 May 1880) was a French novelist. He has been considered the leading exponent of literary realism in his country and abroad. He is known especially for his debut novel Madame Bovary (1857), his Correspondence, and his scrupulous devotion to his style and aesthetics. The celebrated writer Guy de Maupassant was a protégé of Flaubert.

from Wikipedia

Quotes from Gustave Flaubert

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

—Gustave Flaubert

Love is a springtime plant that perfumes everything with its hope, even the ruins to which it clings.

—Gustave Flaubert

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

—Gustave Flaubert

Of all lies, art is the least untrue.

—Gustave Flaubert

Artists who seek perfection in everything are those who cannot attain it in anything.

—Gustave Flaubert

Art requires neither complaisance nor politeness; nothing but faith, faith and freedom.

—Gustave Flaubert

I believe that if one always looked at the skies, one would end up with wings.

—Gustave Flaubert

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

—Gustave Flaubert

Read in order to live.

—Gustave Flaubert