The only way to avoid being unhappy is to close yourself up in Art and to count for nothing all the rest.

Quote by Gustave Flaubert

Topics: Gustave Flaubert Quotes

Poetry is as precise a thing as geometry.

Poetry is as precise a thing as geometry.

The future is the worst thing about the present.

The future is the worst thing about the present.

Human speech is like a cracked kettle on which we tap crude rhythms for bears...

Human speech is like a cracked kettle on which we tap crude rhythms for bears...

Happiness is a monstrosity! Punished are those who seek it.

Happiness is a monstrosity! Punished are those who seek it.

I love good sense above all, perhaps because I have none.

I love good sense above all, perhaps because I have none.

Everything one invents is true, you may be perfectly sure of that. Poetry is as...

Everything one invents is true, you may be perfectly sure of that. Poetry is as...

Be regular and orderly in your life, so that you may be violent and original...

Be regular and orderly in your life, so that you may be violent and original...

You can calculate the worth of a man by the number of his enemies, and...

You can calculate the worth of a man by the number of his enemies, and...

Caught up in life, you see it badly. You suffer from it or enjoy it...

Caught up in life, you see it badly. You suffer from it or enjoy it...

Writing is a dog's life, but the only life worth living.

Writing is a dog's life, but the only life worth living.

I love my work with a frenetic and perverse love, as an ascetic loves the...

I love my work with a frenetic and perverse love, as an ascetic loves the...

Writing is a dog's life, but the only life worth living.

Writing is a dog's life, but the only life worth living.

Anything becomes interesting if you look at it long enough.

Anything becomes interesting if you look at it long enough.

Of all possible debauches, traveling is the greatest that I know; that's the one they...

Of all possible debauches, traveling is the greatest that I know; that's the one they...

One mustn't ask apple trees for oranges, France for sun, women for love, life for...

One mustn't ask apple trees for oranges, France for sun, women for love, life for...

Reality does not conform to the ideal, but confirms it.

Reality does not conform to the ideal, but confirms it.

Of all the icy blasts that blow on love, a request for money is the...

Of all the icy blasts that blow on love, a request for money is the...

Nothing is more humiliating than to see idiots succeed in enterprises we have failed in.

Nothing is more humiliating than to see idiots succeed in enterprises we have failed in.

I have come to have the firm conviction that vanity is the basis of everything,...

I have come to have the firm conviction that vanity is the basis of everything,...

A friend who dies, it's something of you who dies.

A friend who dies, it's something of you who dies.