Quotes from Gustave Flaubert

Entonces seguro de ser amado, no se molestó, e insensiblemente sus maneras cambiaron. Ya no empleaba como antes aquellas palabras tan dulces que la hacían llorar, ni aquellas vehementes caricias...de modo que su gran amor en el que vivía inmersa le pareció que iba descendiendo bajo sus pies...percibió el fango. No quería creerlo; redobló su ternura; y Rodolfo, cada vez menos, ocultó su indiferencia.

I understand, said the notary; a man of science can't be worried with the practical details of life.

Those who were beginning to grow old had an air of youth, while there was something mature in the faces of the young.

I live absolutely like an oyster.

She loved the sea only for the sake of its storms, and the green fields only when broken up by ruins.

It was that reverie which we give to things that will not return, the lassitude that seizes you after everything was done; that pain, in fine, that the interruption of every wonted movement, the sudden cessation of any prolonged vibration, brings on.

lo que nos demuestra, de paso, que los sacerdotes han estado siempre sumidos en una ignorancia ignominiosa, en la que se esfuerzan por hundir con ellos a los pueblos.

Rien n'est humiliant comme de voir les sots réussir dans les entreprises où l'on échoue.

Love is a springtime plant that perfumes everything with its hope, even the ruins to which it clings.

A man, on the contrary, should he not know everything, excel in manifold activities, initiate you into the energies of passion, the refinements of life, all mysteries? But this one taught nothing, knew nothing, wished nothing. He thought her happy; and she resented this easy calm, this serene heaviness, the very happiness she gave him.

Najbolje stvari u životu pro?u jer prvo govorimo "još je rano, a zatim "suviše je kasno.

sentimentele sl?besc cînd le schimbi locul .../ Frédéric s'était attendu à des spasmes de joie ; mais les passions s'étiolent quand on les dépayse , et, ne retrouvant plus Mme Arnoux dans le milieu où il l'avait connue, elle lui semblait avoir perdu quelque chose, porter confusément comme une dégradation, enfin n'être pas la même. Le calme de son coeur le stupéfiait. (©BeQ)

In her desire, she confused the sensual pleasures of luxury with the joys of the heart, elegance of manner with delicacy of feeling.

Poor human weakness! With your words, your languages, your sounds, you speak and stammer—you define God, the heaven and the earth, chemistry and philosophy, and you cannot express, with your language, all the joy that you derive from a naked woman—or a plum pudding.

You must write for yourself, above all.

That is but the device of the devil to seduce the faithful more easily. He attacks the strong through the mind, the weak through the flesh.

She repeated, I have a lover! a lover! delighting at the idea as if a second puberty had come to her.

Szerelmes volt Léonba, s csak azért kereste a magányt, hogy kedvére gyönyörködhessen szerelmese képében. Léon személyes megjelenése zavarta ezt a kéjes ábrándozást.

Comment était ce Paris? Quel nom démesuré! Elle se le répétait à demi-voix, pour se faire plaisir; il sonnait à ses oreilles comme un bourdon de cathédrale, il flamboyait à ses yeux jusque sur l'étiquette de ses pots de pommade.

The most mediocre libertine has dreamed of sultanas; every notary bears within him the debris of a poet.

This splendid vision dwelt in her memory as the most beautiful thing that it was possible to dream, so that now she strove to recall her sensation. That still lasted, however, but in a less exclusive fashion and with a deeper sweetness. Her soul, tortured by

Amad el arte. De todas las mentiras es la menos mentirosa.

Then she fell back exhausted, for these transports of vague love wearied her more than great debauchery.

A man, at least, is free; he can explore each passion and every kingdom, conquer obstacles, feast upon the most exotic pleasures. But a woman is continually thwarted. Both inert and yielding, against her are ranged the weakness of the flesh and the inequity of the law. Her will, like the veil strung to her bonnet, flutters in every breeze; always there is the desire urging, always the convention restraining.