The true poet for me is a priest. As soon as he dons the cassock, he must leave his family.
Gustave Flaubert

The whole dream of democracy is to raise the proletarian to the level of stupidity attained by the bourgeois.
Gustave Flaubert

There are neither good nor bad subjects. From the point of view of pure Art, you could almost establish it as an axiom that the subject is irrelevant, style itself being an absolute manner of seeing things.
Gustave Flaubert

There is no truth. There is only perception.
Gustave Flaubert

To be stupid, selfish, and have good health are three requirements for happiness, though if stupidity is lacking, all is lost.
Gustave Flaubert

What an elder sees sitting; the young can't see standing.
Gustave Flaubert

What is the beautiful, if not the impossible.
Gustave Flaubert

Woman is a vulgar animal from whom man has created an excessively beautiful ideal.
Gustave Flaubert

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

You can calculate the worth of a man by the number of his enemies, and the importance of a work of art by the harm that is spoken of it.
Gustave Flaubert