Gustave Flaubert (Narrator)

"The monotony of marriage is death by a thousand small betrayals"

"Art cannot fill the void that life leaves empty"

"She sought in others what she had lost in herself"

"Money becomes the only poetry for the desperate"

"Time moves slowly for those waiting for happiness to arrive"

"The provincial life suffocates those born for passion"

"Lies are the only truth we tell ourselves willingly"

"She mistook sentiment for strength, weakness for love"

"What is marriage but a prolonged farewell to one's former self?"

"Beauty fades, but the hunger for it never dies"

"The past haunts us more than any ghost could"

"She had confused romance with happiness, and paid the price"

"Desperation makes philosophers of us all, briefly"

"The heart knows no arithmetic, only excess"

"She was a masterpiece of self-deception"

"Nature cares nothing for our romantic aspirations"

"Dreams are cruel creditors that demand payment in reality"

"The soul starves on bread alone, but dies on luxury too"

"She collected griefs as others collect jewels"

"Adultery seemed the only honest thing left in her life"

"Knowledge of one's unhappiness does not cure it"

"She was a prisoner of her own expectations"

"The world punishes those who demand too much of it"

"What we imagine is always more beautiful than what we possess"

"She learned too late that passion and dignity cannot coexist"

"The pen and the heart are poor guides to living"

"Patience is the virtue only of those with no other choice"

"She had spent her life running from herself"

"Desire is the only immortality we are granted"

"The heart is a fickle instrument, poorly tuned from the start"