Gustave Flaubert

"The main stream of civilization goes to the phone booth."

"One should not criticize people for their pessimism; their complaints often have a foundation in reality."

"Criticism is a serious business. One should have at least two hands to clap."

"To understand is to love."

"Generalities and passions don't go well together."

"It is our passions that move us, but only our intelligence that leads us."

"The human heart is like Indian rubber; a little swelling, but it soon returns to its original dimensions."

"Every man has in his heart a private dungeon."

"The possession of a book becomes a substitute for reading it."

"One must always sell one's ideas, not oneself."

"The future is the worst of all evils because it hasn't happened yet."

"There are men who would be improved by hanging."

"To say that one waits a lifetime for his soulmate to come around is a great deal of truth."

"All our troubles spring from our forgetfulness of each other."

"Thought is a labyrinth."

"The ideal form of true prayers is thus a mathematical process of surprise and secrecy and mercy."

"Facts are chips off the world's crust."

"The sea is a desert of waves, a wilderness of water."

"Reading is to the mind what exercise is to the body."

"The number of fools is infinite."

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

"Words are like money; there is nothing so useless, unless when in actual use."

"A man is worth more dead than alive."

"The eternal feminine principle is what sets the world in motion."

"One's duty is to say to oneself that the first human who will be happy will be so by dint of having studied much."

"The author in his book must be like God in his universe, present everywhere and visible nowhere."

"It is impossible to be just to books that are unjust to us."

"Work! Always work!"

"One must learn everything, so that one can scorn nothing."

"The more alternatives, the more difficult the choice."