Gustave Flaubert Quotes
Most popular Gustave Flaubert Quotes
![Exuberance is better than taste. - Gustave Flaubert quote.](/img/q/71/20071A-exuberance-is-better-than-taste-gustave-flaubert.png)
Exuberance is better than taste.
![Poetry is a subject as precise as geometry. - Gustave Flaubert quote.](/img/q/86/37486A-poetry-is-a-subject-as-precise-as-geometry-gustave-flaubert.png)
Poetry is a subject as precise as geometry.
![The man is nothing - his work is everything. - Gustave Flaubert quote.](/img/q/16/1516A-the-man-is-nothing-his-work-is-everything-gustave-flaubert.png)
The man is nothing - his work is everything.
![Style is life! It is the very life-blood of thought! - Gustave Flaubert quote.](/img/q/76/40276A-style-is-life-it-is-the-very-life-blood-thought-gustave-flaubert.png)
Style is life! It is the very life-blood of thought!
![To see one's name in print! Some people commit a crime for no other reason. - Gustave Flaubert quote.](/img/q/38/20238A-to-see-ones-name-in-print-some-people-commit-crime-gustave-flaubert.png)
To see one's name in print! Some people commit a crime for no other reason.
![What a heavy oar the pen is, and what a strong current ideas are to row in! - Gustave Flaubert quote.](/img/q/82/33182A-what-a-heavy-oar-the-pen-is-what-strong-current-gustave-flaubert.png)
What a heavy oar the pen is, and what a strong current ideas are to row in!
![No one can ever state the exact measure of his needs, nor his ideas nor his sorrows. - Gustave Flaubert quote.](/img/q/93/39993A-no-one-can-ever-state-the-exact-measure-his-needs-gustave-flaubert.png)
No one can ever state the exact measure of his needs, nor his ideas nor his sorrows.
![Nothing is more humiliating than to see idiots succeed in enterprises we have failed in. - Gustave Flaubert quote.](/img/q/43/7943A-nothing-is-more-humiliating-than-to-see-idiots-succeed-enterprises-gustave-flaubert.png)
Nothing is more humiliating than to see idiots succeed in enterprises we have failed in.
![Nothing is more humiliating that to see idiots succeed in enterprises we have failed in. - Gustave Flaubert quote.](/img/q/66/33266A-nothing-is-more-humiliating-that-to-see-idiots-succeed-enterprises-gustave-flaubert.png)
Nothing is more humiliating that to see idiots succeed in enterprises we have failed in.
![Writing this book I am like a man playing the piano with lead balls attached to his knuckles. - Gustave Flaubert quote.](/img/q/85/42585A-writing-this-book-i-am-like-man-playing-piano-with-gustave-flaubert.png)
Writing this book I am like a man playing the piano with lead balls attached to his knuckles.
![There is nothing so humiliating as to see blockheads secceed in undertakings in which we fail. - Gustave Flaubert quote.](/img/q/05/33005A-there-is-nothing-so-humiliating-as-see-blockheads-secceed-undertakings-gustave-flaubert.png)
There is nothing so humiliating as to see blockheads secceed in undertakings in which we fail.
![An author in his book must be like God in the universe, present everywhere and visible nowhere. - Gustave Flaubert quote.](/img/q/61/26761A-an-author-in-his-book-must-be-like-god-universe-gustave-flaubert.png)
An author in his book must be like God in the universe, present everywhere and visible nowhere.
![One's existence should be in two parts: one should live like a bourgeois and think like a demigod. - Gustave Flaubert quote.](/img/q/02/19302A-ones-existence-should-be-in-two-parts-one-should-live-gustave-flaubert.png)
One's existence should be in two parts: one should live like a bourgeois and think like a demigod.
![Of all the icy blasts that blow on love, a request for money is the most chilling and havoc-wreaking. - Gustave Flaubert quote.](/img/q/44/35144A-of-all-the-icy-blasts-that-blow-love-request-money-gustave-flaubert.png)
Of all the icy blasts that blow on love, a request for money is the most chilling and havoc-wreaking.
![The better a work, the more it attracts criticism; it is like the fleas who rush to jump on white linen. - Gustave Flaubert quote.](/img/q/90/28890A-the-better-a-work-the-more-it-attracts-criticism-it-gustave-flaubert.png)
The better a work, the more it attracts criticism; it is like the fleas who rush to jump on white linen.
![Do not read as children do to enjoy themselves, or, as the ambitious do to educate themselves. No, read to live. - Gustave Flaubert quote.](/img/q/93/18893A-do-not-read-as-children-do-enjoy-themselves-or-as-gustave-flaubert.png)
Do not read as children do to enjoy themselves, or, as the ambitious do to educate themselves. No, read to live.
![It is splendid to be a great writer, to put men into the frying pan of your words and make them pop like chestnuts. - Gustave Flaubert quote.](/img/q/24/42424A-it-is-splendid-to-be-a-great-writer-put-men-gustave-flaubert.png)
It is splendid to be a great writer, to put men into the frying pan of your words and make them pop like chestnuts.
![A man is a critic when he cannot be an artist, in the same way that a man becomes an informer when he cannot be a soldier. - Gustave Flaubert quote.](/img/q/28/28928A-a-man-is-a-critic-when-he-cannot-be-artist-gustave-flaubert.png)
A man is a critic when he cannot be an artist, in the same way that a man becomes an informer when he cannot be a soldier.
![To be stupid, selfish, and have good health are three requirements for happiness, though if stupidity is lacking, all is lost. - Gustave Flaubert quote.](/img/q/32/40232A-to-be-stupid-selfish-and-have-good-health-are-three-gustave-flaubert.png)
To be stupid, selfish, and have good health are three requirements for happiness, though if stupidity is lacking, all is lost.
![She snatched off her dress and tore at the thin laces of her corsets, which whistled down over her hips like a slithering adder. - Gustave Flaubert quote.](/img/q/17/29317A-she-snatched-off-her-dress-and-tore-at-thin-laces-gustave-flaubert.png)
She snatched off her dress and tore at the thin laces of her corsets, which whistled down over her hips like a slithering adder.
![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. - Gustave Flaubert quote.](/img/q/46/26546A-the-artist-must-be-in-his-work-as-god-is-gustave-flaubert.png)
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.
![Stupidity is something unshakable; nothing attacks it without breaking itself against it; it is of the nature of granite, hard and resistant. - Gustave Flaubert quote.](/img/q/33/40233A-stupidity-is-something-unshakable-nothing-attacks-it-without-breaking-itself-gustave-flaubert.png)
Stupidity is something unshakable; nothing attacks it without breaking itself against it; it is of the nature of granite, hard and resistant.
![I am irritated by my own writing. I am like a violinist whose ear is true, but whose fingers refuse to reproduce precisely the sound he hears within. - Gustave Flaubert quote.](/img/q/84/42584A-i-am-irritated-by-my-own-writing-i-am-like-gustave-flaubert.png)
I am irritated by my own writing. I am like a violinist whose ear is true, but whose fingers refuse to reproduce precisely the sound he hears within.
![Sometimes, when I find I haven't written a single sentence after scribbling whole pages, I collapse on my couch and lie there dazed, bogged in a swamp of despair, hating myself and blaming myself for this demented pride that makes me pout after a chimera. A quarter of an hour later, everything has changed; my heart is pounding with joy. - Gustave Flaubert quote.](/img/q/61/1561A-sometimes-when-i-find-i-havent-written-single-sentence-after-gustave-flaubert.png)
Sometimes, when I find I haven't written a single sentence after scribbling whole pages, I collapse on my couch and lie there dazed, bogged in a swamp of despair, hating myself and blaming myself for this demented pride that makes me pout after a chimera. A quarter of an hour later, everything has changed; my heart is pounding with joy.