Quotes from Gustav Flaubert

She remembered the heroines of novels she had read, and the lyrical legion of those adulterous women began to sing in her memory with sisterly voices that enchanted her. Now she saw herself as one of those amoureuses whom she had so envied: she was becoming, in reality, one of that gallery of fictional figures; the long dream of her youth was coming true.

The most important thing is to keep the Soul aloft

Bourgeois do not even suspect that we serve them our hearts. The race of gladiators has not died: every artist is one. He amuses the public with his afflictions.

Your person, your slightest movements seemed to me to possess a superhuman importance in the world. My heart used to raise like the dust in your footsteps. The effect you had on me was that of a moonlit night in summer, when all is perfume, soft shadows, pale light, and infinite horizons. For me your name contained all the delights of flesh and spirit, and I repeated it again and again, trying to kiss it with my lips.

Madame Bovary, c'est moi.

those works that don't touch the heart, it seems to me, miss the true aim of Art.

Tenha cuidado com a tristeza. É um vício.

They had both failed, one to realize his dreams of love, the other to fulfill his dreams of power. What was the reason? "Perhaps it's because we didn't steer a straight course," said Frédéric. "That may be true in your case. I, on the other hand, was far too rigid in my line of conduct...I was too logical, and you were too sentimental." Then they blamed chance, circumstances, the times into which they were born.

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

Love, she believed, had to come, suddenly, with a great clap of thunder and a lightning flash, a tempest from heaven that falls upon your life, like a devastation, scatters your ideals like leaves and hurls your very soul into the abyss. Little did she know that up on the roof of the house, the rain will form a pool if the gutters are blocked, and there she would have stayed feeling safe inside, until one day she suddenly discovered the crack right down the wall.

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