To be stupid, selfish, and have good health are three requirements for happiness, though if stupidity is lacking, all is lost. Gustave Flaubert on happiness
One mustn't ask apple trees for oranges, France for sun, women for love, life for happiness. Gustave Flaubert on happiness
Oh, if I had been loved at the age of seventeen, what an idiot I would be today. Happiness is like smallpox: if you catch it too soon, it can completely ruin your constitution. Gustave Flaubert on happiness
Happiness is a monstrosity! Punished are those who seek it. Gustave Flaubert on happiness
To be stupid, selfish, and have good health are three requirements for happiness, though if stupidity is lacking, all is lost. Gustave Flaubert on health
Our ignorance of history causes us to slander our own times. Gustave Flaubert on history
Love is a springtime plant that perfumes everything with its hope, even the ruins to which it clings. Gustave Flaubert on hope
One must always hope when one is desperate, and doubt when one hopes. Gustave Flaubert on hope
The most glorious moments in your life are not the so-called days of success, but rather those days when out of dejection and despair you feel rise in you a challenge to life, and the promise of future accomplishments. Gustave Flaubert on life
Love is a springtime plant that perfumes everything with its hope, even the ruins to which it clings. Gustave Flaubert on love
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. Gustave Flaubert on music
I believe that if one always looked at the skies, one would end up with wings. Gustave Flaubert on nature
Stupidity is something unshakable nothing attacks it without breaking itself against it it is of the nature of granite, hard and resistant. Gustave Flaubert on nature
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. Gustave Flaubert on nature
Everything one invents is true, you may be perfectly sure of that. Poetry is as precise as geometry. Gustave Flaubert on poetry
Poetry is as precise a thing as geometry. Gustave Flaubert on poetry
All one's inventions are true, you can be sure of that. Poetry is as exact a science as geometry. Gustave Flaubert on poetry
All one's inventions are true, you can be sure of that. Poetry is as exact a science as geometry. Gustave Flaubert on science
The most glorious moments in your life are not the so-called days of success, but rather those days when out of dejection and despair you feel rise in you a challenge to life, and the promise of future accomplishments. Gustave Flaubert on success
Success is a consequence and must not be a goal. Gustave Flaubert on success