Gustave Flaubert

"The artist must be in his work like God in creation, invisible yet all-powerful."

"Writing is a dog's life, but the only life worth living."

"The heart has its reasons which reason knows nothing of."

"One should as a rule respect public opinion in so far as is necessary to avoid starvation and to prevent one's ear drums from bursting, but anything that goes beyond this is voluntary submission to an unnecessary tyranny."

"Talent is a long patience."

"The more one loves a woman, the more one hates her."

"Do not read, as children do, to amuse yourself, or like the ambitious, for the purpose of instruction. No, read in order to live."

"Whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things."

"A man is not idle because he is absorbed in thought. There is a visible labor and there is an invisible labor."

"To be stupid, selfish, and have good health are three requirements for happiness."

"The secret of masterpieces is to look at the world like a child."

"The only way to deal with an unfree world is to become so absolutely free that very existence is an act of rebellion."

"One should love only the dead."

"I am always irritated by letters."

"Civilization will not attain to its perfection until the last stone from the last church falls on the last priest."

"Never read a book through merely because you have begun it."

"There is no greater agony than bearing an untold story inside you."

"One must not always think that feeling is everything. Art is nothing without form."

"The most glorious moment in your life is not the so-called day when you have achieved your purpose, that is, rather, the day when you see clearly before you the purpose to which you are destined."

"I have the conviction that existence is devoid of meaning."

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

"Mediocrity is the best that can be produced from an average mind."

"God is a circle whose center is everywhere and circumference nowhere."

"Do not be afraid of the past. It creates nothing."

"Beauty is truth, truth is beauty."

"The world breaks everyone, and afterward, some are strong at the broken places."

"The heart has reasons that reason knows nothing about."

"Experience is the only teacher."

"I love my work with a love that is frenzied and perverse."

"Boredom, that gloomy passion, is what kills you."