Quotes from Gustave Flaubert

I was resting in the shadow of that ideal happiness as in the shade of the poisonous manchineel tree, without foreseeing the consequences.

Souvent, en regardant le soleil, je me suis dit « Pourquoi viens-tu chaque jour éclairer tant de souffrances, découvrir tant de douleurs, présider à tant de sottes misères ? »

Nessuno, mai, riesce a dare l'esatta misura di ciò che pensa, di ciò che soffre, della necessità che lo incalza, e la parola umana è spesso come un pentolino di latta su cui andiamo battendo melodie da far ballare gli orsi mentre vorremmo intenerire le stelle.

but I don't need to go into a church and kiss a silver platter and reach into my pockets to fatten a pack of humbugs who eat better than we do! Because one can honor him just as well in a forest, in a field, or even by gazing up at the ethereal vault, like the ancients.

Rich or poor, victors or vanquished, I make no allowance for any of them. I don't want love or hate, pity or anger. Sympathy is another matter. There is never enough of that.

e ela permanecia perdida em um frio terrível que a atravessava.

She no longer existed.

Des doutes succédaient à leurs emportements d'espoir. Après des crises de gaieté verbeuse, ils tombaient dans des silences profonds.

Quels étaient son nom, sa demeure, sa vie, son passé ? Il souhaitait connaître les meubles de sa chambre, toutes les robes qu'elle avait portées, les gens qu'elle fréquentait ; et le désir de la possession physique même disparaissait sous une envie plus profonde, dans une curiosité douloureuse qui n'avait pas de limites.

But what was making her so unhappy? Where was the extraordinary catastrophe that had overturned her life? And she lifted her head and looked around, as though seeking the cause of what hurt her so.

I was born longing to die.

Elle souhaitait à la fois mourir et habiter Paris.

Lively once, expansive and affectionate, in growing older she had become (after the fashion of wine that, exposed to air, turns to vinegar) ill-tempered, grumbling, irritable. She

Bisognava ridurre alle loro giuste proporzioni i discorsi esagerati che nascondono affetti mediocri. Come se la piena del cuore traboccasse talvolta nelle metafore più vacue. Giacché nessuno ha mai l'esatta misura dei propri bisogni, delle proprie idee, dei propri dolori, giacché la parola umana è come una caldaia incrinata sulla quale battiamo per cavare, alla fine, una musica capace di far ballare gli orsi: e dire che, invece, vorremmo intenerire le stelle!

Me?utim, ako brojim godine, nije tome davno što sam se rodio, ali imam brojne uspomene koje osje?am kako me tište, kao što tište starce svi dani što su ih proživjeli; ?ini mi se katkada da sam trajao dugim stolje?ima, i da moje bi?e sadržava u sebi ostatke od tisu?u prošlih života.

What happiness there had been in those days! What freedom! What hope! What an abundance of illusions! She had none left now. Each new venture had cost her some of them, each of her successive conditions: as virgin, wife and mistress; she had lost them all along the course of her life, like a traveler who leaves some of his wealth at every inn along the road.

Quand on se compare à ce qui vous entoure, on s'admire ; mais quand on lève les yeux plus haut, vers les maîtres, vers l'absolu, vers le rêve, comme on se méprise  !

Before marriage she thought hserself in love; but the happiness that should have followed this love not having come, she must, she thought, have been mistaken. And Emma tried to find out what one meant exactly in life by the words felicity, passion, rapture, that had seemed to her so beautiful in books.

Quant à Emma, elle ne s'interrogea point pour savoir si elle l'aimait. L'amour, croyait-elle, devait arriver tout à coup, avec de grands éclats et des fulgurations, – ouragan des cieux qui tombe sur la vie, la bouleverse, arrache les volontés comme des feuilles et emporte à l'abîme le cÅ"ur entier.

Sometimes they opened a book and closed it again; what was the point? On other days they had the idea of tidying up the garden, but after a quarter of an hour they felt tired; or of looking at their farm, but they came back sick at heart; or doing household jobs, but Germaine cried out in protest; they gave up.

Read in oreder to live

The principal thing in this world is to keep one's soul aloft.

What he then saw was like an apparition. She was seated in the middle of a bench all alone, or, at any rate, he could see no one, dazzled as he was by her eyes.

It was not the first time that they had seen trees, a blue sky, meadows; that they had heard the water flowing and the wind blowing in the leaves; but, no doubt, they had never admired all this, as if Nature had not existed before, or had only begun to be beautiful since the gratification of their desires.