Gustave Flaubert

"An artist should not believe in the judgment of others, but in the merit of his own work."

"Certainty is not given to us on earth."

"Give me the luxuries and I can dispense with the necessities."

"The test of the first-rate intelligence is the ability to hold two opposed ideas in mind and still retain the ability to function."

"We must never accept as inevitable what destroys the unique in human life."

"To read is to have company."

"The beautiful is less difficult than the ugly."

"One is happy as a result of one's own efforts."

"The past is a foreign country; they do things differently there."

"Art is a form of catharsis."

"Life is full of people who have broken the rules that were meant to constrain them."

"To be read, one must be able to breathe."

"Duty is a mysterious voice that calls from the future."

"Words are like leaves; and where they most abound, much fruit of sense beneath is rarely found."

"The mind always makes progress, but it is a progress in spirals."

"Faith is a fine invention for explaining to children why it is that they have no toys."

"All progress is based on a universal innate desire on the part of every organism to live beyond its income."

"The higher powers grant success to the persevering."

"Character is destiny."

"Solitude is the soil out of which genius is produced."

"Everyone has talent at twenty-five."

"The desire to write grows with writing."

"Truth is stranger than fiction."

"We live in the most admirable age in the history of the world."

"A person is wise in proportion to the number of things he knows."

"Love cannot be forced; it must come naturally."

"Life gets harder as you climb towards the summit."

"Originality is nothing but judicious imitation."

"Death is the only thing that ever changes anything."

"Patience is a virtue more difficult than strength."