Quote

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.

Gustave Flaubert

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Gustave Flaubert
Age: 58 †
Born: 1821
Born: December 12
Died: 1880
Died: May 8
Novelist
Writer
Flaubert
Believe
Judging
Genius
Greatest
Literature
Punches
Force
Characteristic
Energy
Characteristics
Given
Judge
Book
Goodness

More quotes by Gustave Flaubert

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May I die like a dog rather than hasten the ripening of a sentence by a single second!
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The art of writing is the art of discovering what you believe.
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Thought is the greatest of pleasures —pleasure itself is only imagination—have you ever enjoyed anything more than your dreams?
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What an elder sees sitting the young can't see standing.
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Madame Aubain's servant Felicite was the envy of the ladies of Pont-l'Eveque for half a century.
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Do not imagine you can exorcise what oppresses you in life by giving vent to it in art.
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A good sentence in prose should be like a good line in poetry, unchangeable, as rhythmic, as sonorous.
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Doesn't it seem to you, asked Madame Bovary, that the mind moves more freely in the presence of that boundless expanse, that the sight of it elevates the soul and gives rise to thoughts of the infinite and the ideal?
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I detest my fellow-beings and do not feel that I am their fellow at all
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I invite all brats to throw their cookies at the baker's head if they're not sweet, winos to chuck their wine if it's bad, the dying to shuck their souls when they croak, and men to throw their existence in God's face when it's bitter
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After a person dies, there is always something like a feeling of stupefaction, so difficult is it to comprehend this unexpected advent of nothingness and to resign oneself to believing it.
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Antiquite . en tout ce qui s'y rapporte: Est poncif, embe tant! etc. Antiquity. And everything to do with it, cliche d and boring.
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Me and my books in the same apartment, like a gherkin in its vinegar.
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Women want you to deceive them: they force you to, and if you resist, they blame you.
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Life is so horrible that one can only bear it by avoiding it. And that can be done by living in the world of art.
Gustave Flaubert
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Mediocrity cherishes rules as for me, I hate them I feel for them and for every restriction, corporation, caste, hierarchy, level, herd, a loathing which fills my soul, and it is in this respect perhaps that I understand martyrdom.
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One day, I shall explode like an artillery shell and all my bits will be found on the writing table.
Gustave Flaubert
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A superhuman will is needed in order to write, and I am only a man.
Gustave Flaubert
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I have patience in all things - as far as the antechamber.
Gustave Flaubert
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The more humanity advances, the more it is degraded.
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