Background Image
...
Writing History Is Like Drinking An Ocean And Pissing A Cupful.
-Gustave Flaubert
...
Please Wait....
Translating....

Writing History Is Like

Gustave Flaubert
...
Writing History Is Like Drinking An Ocean And Pissing A Cupful.

Understanding the Quote: "writing history is like drinking an ocean and pissing a cupful...."

This quote by Gustave Flaubert reflects deeply on the theme of drinking. It connects to the universal human journey of purpose, motivation, and reflection. Often categorized under Drinking, Ocean, Writing, the quote offers insight, emotional clarity, and intellectual inspiration to readers worldwide.

Whether you’re a student exploring new ideas, a leader trying to motivate your team, or someone seeking direction in life — this quote provides value. It resonates because it’s more than words — it’s a bridge between experience and wisdom. It shows how Gustave Flaubert interprets life's core challenges and triumphs.

Lessons From the Quote

This quote teaches resilience and focus. It reminds readers that no matter where they stand in life, reflection and self-awareness lead to growth. Each word has meaning, and when studied, it becomes clear how impactful thoughtful language can be.

About Gustave Flaubert

Gustave Flaubert is celebrated for insightful thoughts on drinking and ocean. Their legacy lives on through writings that guide, comfort, and inspire. Discover more on their profile page.

Actionable Takeaways

  • Reflect on how this quote applies to your current life path.
  • Share the message with someone who needs inspiration.
  • Write your thoughts on this quote in a journal or blog post.
  • Use it as a daily affirmation or reminder.

Closing Thoughts

Quotes like this endure because they capture universal truths. They comfort us in solitude and empower us in groups. Carry this quote forward — live by its wisdom, share its message, and keep its essence alive.

Views: 84602
Topic
Drinking
Ocean
Writing
More From Gustave Flaubert
Isn’t ‘not To Be Bored’ One Of The Principal Goals Of Life?
Boredom
Goal
Principal
Cold. Healthier Than Heat.
Science
Heat
Cold
The Art Of Writing Is The Art Of Discovering What You Believe.
Inspirational
Life
Art
Poetry Is As Precise A Thing As Geometry.
Geometry
Poetry Is
Precise
But The Most Wretched Thing, Is It Not-is To Drag Out, As I Do, A Useless Existence. If Our Pains Were Only Of Some Use To Someone, We Should Find Consolation In The Thought Of The Sacrifice.
Pain
Sacrifice
Use
What I Would Like To Write Is A Book About Nothing, A Book Without Exterior Attachments, Which Would Be Held Together By The Innerforce Of Its Style, As The Earth Without Support Is Held In The Air--a Book That Would Have Almost No Subject Or At Least In Which The Subject Would Be Almost Invisible.
Art
Book
Writing
A Memory Is A Beautiful Thing, It's Almost A Desire That You Miss.
Missing You
Beautiful
Memories
You Must Write For Yourself, Above All. That Is Your Only Hope Of Creating Something Beautiful.
Beautiful
Writing
Creating
One Must Laugh And Weep, Love, Work, Enjoy And Suffer, In Short Vibrate As Much As Possible In All His Being.
Laughing
Suffering
Enjoy
Nothing Is More Humiliating Than To See Idiots Succeed In Enterprises We Have Failed In.
Inspirational
Humility
Stupidity
They Took Each Other's Advice, Opened One Book, Went Over To Another, Then Did Not Know What To Decide When Opinions Diverged So Widely.
Book
Advice
Opinion
Let Us Not Kid Ourselves; Let Us Remember That Literature Is Of No Use Whatever, Except In The Very Special Case Of Somebody's Wishing To Become, Of All Things, A Professor Of Literature.
Kids
Special
Wish
She Loved The Sea For Its Storms Alone, Cared For Vegetation Only When It Grew Here And There Among Ruins. She Had To Extract A Kind Of Personal Advantage From Things And She Rejected As Useless Everything That Promised No Immediate Gratification — For Her Temperament Was More Sentimental Than Artistic, And What She Was Looking For Was Emotions, Not Scenery.
Sea
Storm
Here And There
Of All Possible Debauches, Traveling Is The Greatest That I Know; That's The One They Invented When They Got Tired Of All The Others.
Travel
Tired
Literature
Coffee: Induces Wit. Good Only If It Comes Through Havre. After A Big Dinner Party It Is Taken Standing Up. Take It Without Sugar - Very Swank: Gives The Impression You Have Lived In The East.
Party
Coffee
Taken
Years Passed; And He Endured The Idleness Of His Intelligence And The Inertia Of His Heart.
Heart
Years
Inertia
I Am A Man-pen. I Feel Through The Pen, Because Of The Pen.
Men
Feels
Pens
[t]he Truth Is That Fullness Of Soul Can Sometimes Overflow In Utter Vapidity Of Language, For None Of Us Can Ever Express The Exact Measure Of His Needs Or His Thoughts Or His Sorrows; And Human Speech Is Like A Cracked Kettle On Which We Tap Crude Rhythms For Bears To Dance To, While We Long To Make Music That Will Melt The Stars.
Stars
Long
Soul
But An Infinity Of Passions Can Be Contained In A Minute, Like A Crowd In A Tiny Space.
Passion
Space
Crowds
I Go Dreaming Into The Future, Where I See Nothing, Nothing. I Have No Plans, No Idea, No Project, And, What Is Worse, No Ambition. Something – The Eternal ‘what’s The Use?’ – Sets Its Bronze Barrier Across Every Avenue That I Open Up In The Realm Of Hypothesis.
Depression
Dream
Ambition
Books Aren't Made In The Way That Babies Are: They Are Made Like Pyramids. There's Some Long-pondered Plan, And Then Great Blocks Of Stone Are Placed One On Top Of The Other, And It's Back-breaking, Sweaty, Time Consuming Work. And All To No Purpose! It Just Stands There In The Desert! But It Towers Over It Prodigiously. Jackals Piss At The Base Of It, And Bourgeois Clamber To The Top Of It, Etc. Continue This Comparison.
Baby
Block
Book
Thought Is The Greatest Of Pleasures —pleasure Itself Is Only Imagination—have You Ever Enjoyed Anything More Than Your Dreams?
Dream
Imagination
Pleasure
Anything Becomes Interesting If You Look At It Long Enough.
Long
Interesting
Looks
Success Is A Consequence And Must Not Be A Goal. I've Never Sought It (though I Desire It) And Seek It Less And Less.
Goal
Desire
Consequence
Farming -- A Vocation Accursed Of Heaven, Since One Never Saw A Millionaire Involved In It.
Heaven
Saws
Farming
Success Is A Consequence And Must Not Be A Goal.
Success
Congratulations
Goal
Abstraction Can Provide Stumbling Blocks For People Of Strange Intelligence.
Block
People
Strange
Of All The Icy Blasts That Blow On Love, A Request For Money Is The Most Chilling.
Blow
Icy
Chill
There Is No Truth. There Is Only Perception.
Truth
Perspective
Perception
What Is Glory? It Is To Have A Lot Of Nonsense Talked About You.
Nonsense
Glory
Fame
What Seems To Me The Highest And The Most Difficult Achievement Of Art Is Not To Make Us Laugh Or Cry, Or To Rouse Our Lust Or Our Anger, But To Do As Nature Does-that Is, Fill Us With Wonderment.
Art
Anger
Laughing
The Hearts Of Women Are Like Those Little Pieces Of Furniture With Secret Hiding - Places, Full Of Drawers Fitted Into Each Other; You Go A Lot Of Trouble, Break Your Nails, And In The Bottom Find Some Withered Flower, A Few Grains Of Dust - Or Emptiness!
Flower
Heart
Dust
The Denigration Of Those We Love Always Detaches Us From Them In Some Degree. Never Touch Your Idols: The Gilding Will Stick To Your Fingers.
Idols
Degrees
Sticks
Le Charme De La Nouveaute , Peu A' Peu Tombant Comme Un Ve" T Ement, Laissait Voir A' Nu L'e Ternelle Monotonie De La Passion, Qui A Toujours Les Me" Mes Formes Et Le Me" Me Langage. The Charm Of Novelty, Falling Little By Little Like A Robe, Revealed The Eternal Monotony Of Passion, Which Has Always The Same Forms And The Same Language.
Fall
Passion
Littles
As For The Piano, The Faster Her Fingers Flew Over It, The More He Marveled. She Struck The Keys With Aplomb And Ran From One End Of The Keyboard To The Other Without A Stop.
Keys
Piano
Keyboards
All You Have To Do To Make Something Interesting Is To Look At It Long Enough.
Long
Interesting
Looks
Style Is As Much Under The Words As In The Words. It Is As Much The Soul As It Is The Flesh Of A Work.
Soul
Style
Flesh
I Hate That Which We Have Decided To Call Realism, Even Though I Have Been Made One Of Its High Priests.
Hate
Literature
Priests
I Had, As I Told You, A Great Passion While Still Almost A Child. When It Was Over, I Divided Myself In Two, Placing On One Side The Soul I Kept For Art, And On The Other, My Body, Which Would Have To Fend For Itself.
Love
Art
Children
But The Disparaging Of Those We Love Always Alienates Us From Them To Some Extent. We Must Not Touch Our Idols; The Gilt Comes Off In Our Hands.
Hands
Idols
Those We Love
I Detest My Fellow-beings And Do Not Feel That I Am Their Fellow At All
Speech
Feels
Fellows
My Life Which I Dream Will Be So Beautiful, So Poetic, So Vast, So Filled With Love Will Turn Out To Be Like Everybody Else's - Monotonous, Sensible, Stupid.
Beautiful
Dream
Stupid
One Arrives At Style Only With Atrocious Effort, With Fanatical And Devoted Stubbornness.
Effort
Style
Stubborn
Sentences Must Stir In A Book Like Leaves In A Forest, Each Distinct From Each Despite Their Resemblance.
Book
Forests
Sentences
Reveal Art; Conceal The Artist.
Art
Artist
Revelations
Didn't Love, Like A Plant From India, Require A Prepared Soil, A Particular Temperature? Sighs In The Moonlight, Long Embraces, Tears Flowing Over Hands Yielded To A Lover, All The Fevers Of The Flesh And The Languors Of Tenderness Thus Could Not Be Separated From The Balconies Of Great Châteaux Filled With Idle Amusements, A Boudoir With Silk Blinds, A Good Thick Carpet, Full Of Pots Of Flowers, And A Bed Raised On A Dais, Nor From The Sparkle Of Precious Stones And Shoulder Knots On Servants' Livery.
Love
Flower
Hands
There Are Some Men Whose Only Mission Among Others Is To Act As Intermediaries; One Crosses Them Like Bridges And Keeps Going.
Men
Bridges
Crosses
I Have Come To Have The Firm Conviction That Vanity Is The Basis Of Everything, And Finally That What One Calls Conscience Is Only Inner Vanity.
Vanity
Literature
Conviction
He Was Bored Now When Emma Suddenly Began To Sob On His Breast; And His Heart, Like The People Who Can Only Stand A Certain Amount Of Music, Became Drowsy Through Indifference To The Vibrations Of A Love Whose Subtleties He Could No Longer Distinguish.
Heart
People
Bored
Writing This Book I Am Like A Man Playing The Piano With Lead Balls Attached To His Knuckles.
Book
Writing
Men
It Is Always Sad To Leave A Place To Which One Knows One Will Never Return.
Return
Knows
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.
Art
Views
Style
Happiness Is A Monstrosity! Punished Are Those Who Seek It.
Monstrosity
We Should Not Touch Our Idols: Their Gilding Will Remain On Our Hands.
Hands
Idols
Should
Come, Let’s Be Calm: No One Incapable Of Restraint Was Ever A Writer.
Writing
Calm
Restraint
The Cult Of Art Gives Pride; One Never Has Too Much Of It.
Art
Pride
Giving
Love, To Her, Was Something Hat Comes Suddenly, Like A Blinding Flash Of Lightening - A Heaven-sent Storm Hurled Into Life, Uprooting It, Sweeping Every Will Before It Like A Leaf, Engulfing All Feelings.
Heaven Sent
Feelings
Storm
One Mustn't Look At The Abyss, Because There Is At The Bottom An Inexpressible Charm Which Attracts Us.
Life
Looks
Charm
It Seems To Me That I Have Always Existed And That I Possess Memories That Date Back To The Pharaohs.
Memories
Dating
Literature
What Is Beautiful Is Moral, That Is All There Is To It.
Beautiful
Moral
(egypt) Is A Great Place For Contrasts: Splendid Things Gleam In The Dust.
Dust
Egypt
Gleam
Life Is So Horrible That One Can Only Bear It By Avoiding It. And That Can Be Done By Living In The World Of Art.
Art
Bears
Done
I Am An Obscure And Patient Pearl-fisherman Who Dives Into The Deepest Waters And Comes Up With Empty Hands And A Blue Face. Some Fatal Attraction Draws Me Down Into The Abysses Of Thought, Down Into Those Innermost Recesses Which Never Cease To Fascinate The Strong. I Shall Spend My Life Gazing At The Ocean Of Art, Where Others Voyage Or Fight; And From Time To Time I’ll Entertain Myself By Diving For Those Green And Yellow Shells That Nobody Will Want. So I Shall Keep Them For Myself And Cover The Walls Of My Hut With Them.
Art
Strong
Wall
To Be Simple Is No Small Matter.
Simple
Matter
We Think Of Women At Every Age: While Still Children, We Fondle With A Naïve Sensuality The Breasts Of Those Grown-up Girls Kissing Us And Cuddling Us In Their Arms; At The Age Of Ten, We Dream Of Love; At Fifteen, Love Comes Along; At Sixty, It Is Still With Us, And If Dead Men In Their Tombs Have Any Thought In Their Heads, It Is How To Make Their Way Underground To The Nearby Grave, Lift The Shroud Of The Dear Departed Women, And Mingle With Her In Her Sleep
Love
Girl
Dream
Tout Ce Qu'on Invente Est Vrai, Soi-en Sure. La Poesie Est Une Chose Aussi Precise Que La Geometrie.
Mathematics
Precise
The Deplorable Mania Of Doubt Exhausts Me. I Doubt About Everything, Even My Doubts.
Doubt
Literature
Mania
Adultery ... Could Be As Banal As Marriage.
Adultery
You Don't Know What It Is To Stay A Whole Day With Your Head In Your Hands Trying To Squeeze Your Unfortunate Brain So As To Find A Word.
Hands
Brain
Trying
I Have No Use For The Kind Of God Who Goes Walking In His Garden With A Stick, Sends His Friends To Live In The Bellies Of Whales, Gives Up The Ghost With A Groan And Then Comes Back To Life Three Days Later!
Giving Up
Garden
Whales
Better To Work For Yourself Alone. You Do As You Like And Follow Your Own Ideas, You Admire Yourself And Please Yourself: Isn’t That The Main Thing? And Then The Public Is So Stupid. Besides, Who Reads? And What Do They Read? And What Do They Admire?
Stupid
Ideas
Admire
Everything One Invents Is True, You May Be Perfectly Sure Of That. Poetry Is As Precise As Geometry.
Poetry
Literature
May
And The More He Was Irritated By Her Basic Personality, The More He Was Drawn To Her By A Harsh, Bestial Sensuality, Illusions Of A Moment, Which Ended In Hate.
Hate
Personality
Irritated
As Humanity Perfects Itself, Man Becomes Degraded. When Everything Is Reduced To The Mere Counter-balancing Of Economic Interests, What Room Will There Be For Virtue? When Nature Has Been So Subjugated That She Has Lost All Her Original Forms, Where Will That Leave The Plastic Arts? And So On. In The Mean Time, Things Are Going To Get Very Murky.
Art
Money
Mean
If You Participate In Life, You Don’t See It Clearly: You Suffer From It Too Much Or Enjoy It Too Much. The Artist, To My Way Of Thinking, Is A Monstrosity, Something Outside Nature. All The Misfortunes Providence Inflicts On Him Come From His Stubborness In Denying That Maxim.
Artist
Thinking
Suffering
The Faster The Word Sticks To The Thought, The More Beautiful Is The Effect.
Beautiful
Literature
Sticks
It Seems To Me... That I Have Always Lived! I Possess Memories That Go Back To The Pharoahs. I See Myself Very Clearly At Different Ages Of History, Practicing Different Professions... My Present Personality Is The Result Of My Lost [past] Personalities.
Memories
Past
Personality
Iced Champagne Was Served, And The Feel Of The Cold Wine In Her Mouth Gave Emma A Shiver That Ran Over Her From Head To Toe.
Wine
Mouths
Toes
The More You Approach Infinity, The Deeper You Penetrate Terror
Infinity
Terror
Approach
As You Get Older, The Heart Shed Its Leaves Like A Tree. You Cannot Hold Out Against Certain Winds. Each Day Tears Away A Few More Leaves; And Then There Are The Storms That Break Off Several Branches At One Go. And While Nature’s Greenery Grows Back Again In The Spring, That Of The Heart Never Grows Back.
Spring
Heart
Break Off
Our Ignorance Of History Causes Us To Slander Our Own Times.
Ignorance
History
Literature
Speech Is A Rolling Press That Always Amplifies One's Emotions.
Speech
Amplify
Rolling
For A Long Time Now My Heart Has Had Its Shutters Closed, Its Steps Deserted, Formerly A Tumultuous Hotel, But Now Empty And Echoing Like A Great Empty Tomb.
Heart
Long
Steps
What Seems Beautiful To Me, What I Should Like To Write, Is A Book About Nothing, A Book Dependent On Nothing External, Which Would Be Held Together By The Strength Of Its Style, Just As The Earth, Suspended In The Void, Depends On Nothing External For Its Support.
Beautiful
Book
Writing
Life Must Be A Constant Education; One Must Learn Everything, From Speaking To Dying.
Talking
Dying
Constant
One Mustn't Ask Apple Trees For Oranges, France For Sun, Women For Love, Life For Happiness.
Love
Happiness
Apples
The Artist Must Be In His Work As God Is In Creation, Invisible And All-powerful; One Must Sense Him Everywhere But Never See Him.
Powerful
Artist
Literature
The Great Natures Which Are Good, Are Above Everything Generous And Don't Begrudge The Giving Of Themselves.
Giving
Generous
To See One's Name In Print! Some People Commit A Crime For No Other Reason.
Names
People
Reason
Everything Depends On The Value We Give To Things. We Are The Ones Who Make Morality And Virtue. The Cannibal Who Eats His Neighbor Is As Innocent As The Child Who Sucks His Barley-sugar.
Children
Giving
Sugar
Snicker On Hearing His Name: 'the Gentleman Who Thinks We Are Descended From The Apes.'
Science
Thinking
Names
In Her Enthusiasms She Had Always Looked For Something Tangible: She Had Always Loved Church For Its Flowers, Music For Its Romantic Words, Literature For Its Power To Stir The Passions And She Rebelled Before The Mysteries Of Faith Just As She Grew Ever More Restive Under Discipline, Which Was Antipathetic To Her Nature.
Flower
Passion
Discipline
On Certain Occasions Art Can Shake Very Ordinary Spirits, And Whole Worlds Can Be Revealed By Its Clumsiest Interpreters.
Art
Ordinary
World
One's Existence Should Be In Two Parts: One Should Live Like A Bourgeois And Think Like A Demigod.
Life
Thinking
Two
It Is Always Sad To Leave A Place To Which One Knows One Will Never Return. Such Are The Melancolies Du Voyage: Perhaps They Are One Of The Most Rewarding Things About Traveling.
Travel
Voyages
Return
God Is Only A Word Dreamed Up To Explain The World
World
If You Knew All The Dreams I've Dreamed!
Dream
Ifs
You Forget Everything. The Hours Slip By. You Travel In Your Chair Through Centuries You Seem Seem To See Before You, Your Thoughts Are Caught Up In The Story, Dallying With The Details Or Following The Course Of The Plot, You Enter Into Characters, So That It Seems As If It Were Your Own Heart Beating Beneath Their Costumes.
Heart
Character
Forget Everything
The More Humanity Advances, The More It Is Degraded.
Aggravation
Humanity
Literature
The Public Wants Work Which Flatters Its Illusions.
Want
Flattery
Illusion
Judge The Goodness Of A Book By The Energy Of The Punches It Has Given You. I Believe The Greatest Characteristic Of Genius, Is, Above All, Force.
Believe
Book
Judging
There Is Not A Particle Of Life Which Does Not Bear Poetry Within It
Inspirational
Life
Poetry
I Am Finding It Very Hard To Get My Novel Started. I Suffer From Stylistic Abscesses; And Sentences Keep Itching Without Coming To A Head.
Suffering
Novel
Sentences
One's Duty Is To Feel What Is Great, Cherish The Beautiful, And To Not Accept The Conventions Of Society With The Ignominy That It Imposes Upon Us.
Beautiful
Flannels
Cherish
The Heart, Like The Stomach, Wants A Varied Diet.
Heart
Want
Stomach
Travel Makes One Modest. You See What A Tiny Place You Occupy In The World.
Inspirational
Travel
Adventure
Prose Is Like Hair; It Shines With Combing.
Writing
Hair
Shining
Criticism Occupies The Lowest Place In The Literary Hierarchy: As Regards Form, Almost Always; And As Regards Moral Value, Incontestably. It Comes After Rhyming Games And Acrostics, Which At Least Require A Certain Inventiveness.
Games
Criticism
Hierarchy
One Never Tires Of What Is Well Written, Style Is Life! It Is The Very Blood Of Thought!
Blood
Style
Literature
Stupidity Is An Immovable Object: You Can't Try To Attack It Wiithout Being Broken By It.
Broken
Stupidity
Trying
What Stops Me From Taking Myself Seriously, Even Though I Am Essentially A Serious Person, Is That I Find Myself Extremely Ridiculous, Not In The Sense Of The Small-scale Ridiculousness Of Slap-stick Comedy, But Rather In The Sense Of Ridiculousness That Seems Intrinsic To Human Life And That Manifests Itself In The Simplest Actions And The Most Extraordinary Gestures.
Serious Person
Sticks
Gestures
Do Not Read, As Children Do, To Amuse Yourself, Or Like The Ambitious, For The Purpose Of Instruction. No, Read In Order To Live.
Inspirational
Life
Wise
The Most Important Thing In The World Is To Hold Your Soul Aloft.
Karma
Fathers Day
Soul
A Friend Who Dies, It's Something Of You Who Dies.
Death
Loss
Friend Died
The Style, Which Is Something I Take To Heart, Is Getting On My Nerves Horribly. It Frustrates And Torments Me. I Have Days When Iam Sick About It And Nights When It Gives Me A Fever. The More I Go At It The More I Find Myself Incapable Of Conveying The Idea.
Work
Heart
Night
Always 'duty.' I Am Sick Of The Word. They Are A Lot Of Old Blockheads In Flannel Vests And Of Old Women With Foot-warmers And Rosaries Who Constantly Drone Into Our Ears 'duty, Duty!' Ah! By Jove! One's Duty Is To Feel What Is Great, Cherish The Beautiful, And Not Accept All The Conventions Of Society With The Ignominy That It Imposes Upon Us.
Beautiful
Feet
Sick
Pleasure Is Found First In Anticipation, Later In Memory.
Memories
Firsts
Anticipation
You Need A High Degree Of Corruption Or A Very Big Heart To Love Absolutely Everything
Heart
Criticism
Degrees
I Spent The Morning Putting In A Comma And The Afternoon Removing It.
Morning
Afternoon
Through Small Apertures We Glimpse Abysses Whose Sombre Depths Turn Us Faint. And Yet Over The Whole There Hovers An Extraordinary Tenderness.
Life
Glimpse
Aperture
It Is An Excellent Habit To Look At Things As So Many Symbols.
Looks
Habit
Excellent
There Are Two Infinities That Confuse Me: The One In My Soul Devours Me; The One Around Me Will Crush Me
Crush
Two
Soul
I Tried To Discover, In The Rumor Of Forests And Waves, Words That Other Men Could Not Hear, And I Pricked Up My Ears To Listen To The Revelation Of Their Harmony.
Inspirational
Men
Rumor
For Some Men, The Stronger Their Desire, The More Difficult It Is For Them To Act.
Men
Desire
Stronger
She Remembered The Heroines Of Novels She Had Read, And The Lyrical Legion Of Those Adulterous Women Began To Sing In Her Memory With Sisterly Voices That Enchanted Her. Now She Saw Herself As One Of Those Amoureuses Whom She Had So Envied: She Was Becoming, In Reality, One Of That Gallery Of Fictional Figures; The Long Dream Of Her Youth Was Coming True.
Dream
Memories
Reality
How You Measure The Performance Of Your Managers Directly Affects The Way They Act.
Way
Appraisal
Performances
What A Heavy Oar The Pen Is, And What A Strong Current Ideas Are To Row In!
Strong
Ideas
Heavy
A Man Is A Critic When He Cannot Be An Artist, In The Same Way That A Man Becomes An Informer When He Cannot Be A Soldier.
Art
Men
Soldier
The One Way Of Tolerating Existence Is To Lose Oneself In Literature As In A Perpetual Orgy.
Book
Literature
Way
In My View, The Novelist Has No Right To Express His Opinions On The Things Of This World. In Creating, He Must Imitate God: Do His Job And Then Shut Up.
Jobs
Views
Creating
Oh, If I Had Been Loved At The Age Of Seventeen, What An Idiot I Would Be Today. Happiness Is Like Smallpox: If You Catch It Too Soon, It Can Completely Ruin Your Constitution.
Birthday
Age
Today
For Him The Universe Did Not Extend Beyond The Circumference Of Her Petticoat.
Universe
[the Artist] Is Like A Pump; He Has Inside Him A Great Pipe That Reaches Down Into The Entrails Of Things, The Deepest Layers. He Sucks Up What Was Lying There Below, Dim And Unnoticed, And Brings It In Great Jets To The Sunlight.
Inspirational
Lying
Artist
Stupidity Consists In Wanting To Reach Conclusions. We Are A Thread, And We Want To Know The Whole Cloth.
Wisdom
Reading
Knowledge
There Are Three Thing In The World I Love Most: The Sea, Hamlet, And Don Giovanni.
Sea
Three
World
Madame Bovary Is Myself.
Literature
Of All Lies, Art Is The Least Untrue.
Art
Lying
Art Is
How We Keep These Dead Souls In Our Hearts. Each One Of Us Carries Within Himself His Necropolis.
Heart
Soul
Carrie
The Morality Of Art Is In Its Very Beauty.
Art
Philosophy
History
And He Beholds The Moon; Like A Rounded Fragment Of Ice Filled With Motionless Light.
Moon
Light
Ice
Doctor. Always Preceded By 'the Good'. Among Men, In Familiar Conversation, 'oh! Balls, Doctor!' Is A Wizard When He Enjoys Your Confidence, A Jack-ass When You're No Longer On Terms. All Are Materialists: 'you Can't Probe For Faith With A Scalpel.'
Science
Men
Doctors
Are The Days Of Winter Sunshine Just As Sad For You, Too? When It Is Misty, In The Evenings, And I Am Out Walking By Myself, It Seems To Me That The Rain Is Falling Through My Heart And Causing It To Crumble Into Ruins.
Rain
Fall
Heart
Concern For Morality Makes Every Work Of The Imagination False And Stupid.
Stupid
Imagination
Morality
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.
Art
Men
Numbers
Talent Is A Long Patience, And Originality An Effort Of Will And Intense Observation.
Patience
Long
Effort
To Be Stupid, Selfish, And Have Good Health Are Three Requirements For Happiness, Though If Stupidity Is Lacking, All Is Lost.
Happiness
Selfish
Stupid
Doesn't It Seem To You," Asked Madame Bovary, "that The Mind Moves More Freely In The Presence Of That Boundless Expanse, That The Sight Of It Elevates The Soul And Gives Rise To Thoughts Of The Infinite And The Ideal?
Ocean
Moving
Sight
The Author, In His Work, Must Be Like God In The Universe, Present Everywhere And Visible Nowhere.
Visible
Fiction Writers
Universe
Everyone, Either From Modesty Or Egotism, Hides Away The Best And Most Delicate Of His Soul’s Possessions; To Gain The Esteem Of Others, We Must Only Ever Show Our Ugliest Sides; This Is How We Keep Ourselves On The Common Level
Soul
Identity
Levels
Exuberance Is Better Than Taste.
Enthusiasm
Taste
Exuberance
It's A Delicious Thing To Write. To Be No Longer Yourself But To Move In An Entire Universe Of Your Own Creating.
Moving
Writing
Creating
And So I Will Take Back Up My Poor Life, So Plain And So Tranquil, Where Phrases Are Adventures And The Only Flowers I Gather Aremetaphors.
Flower
Adventure
Phrases
Each Dream Finds At Last Its Form; There Is A Drink For Every Thirst, And Love For Every Heart. And There Is No Better Way To Spend Your Life Than In The Unceasing Preoccupation Of An Idea--of An Ideal.
Dream
Art
Ideas
Melancholy Is A Sensual Pleasure That Is Deliberately Provoked. How Many People Shut Themselves Away To Make Themselves Sadder, Or To Weep Beside A Stream, Or Choose A Sentimental Book! We Are Constantly Building And Unbuilding Ourselves.
Book
People
Sensual
Remembering The Ball Became For Emma A Daily Occupation. Every Time Wednesday Came Round, She Told Herself When She Woke Up: 'ah! One Week Ago...two Weeks Ago...three Weeks Ago, I Was There!' And, Little By Little, In Her Memory, The Faces All Blurred Together; She Forgot The Tunes Of The Quadrilles; No Longer Could She So Clearly Picture The Liveries And The Rooms; Some Details Disappeared, But The Yearning Remained.
Memories
Two
Together
Human Speech Is Like A Cracked Kettle On Which We Tap Crude Rhythms For Bears To Dance To, While We Long To Make Music That Will Melt The Stars.
Dance
Stars
Long
We Swung Between Madness And Suicide ... It Was Beautiful!
Beautiful
Depression
Suicide
Once One Has Kissed A Cadaver's Forehead, There Always Remains Something Of It On The Lips, An Infinite Bitterness, An Aftertasteof Nothingness That Nothing Can Erase.
Death
Cadavers
Bitterness
Poetry Is A Subject As Precise As Geometry.
Geometry
Poetry Is
Subjects
Women Want You To Deceive Them: They Force You To, And If You Resist, They Blame You.
Marriage
Want
Blame
He Loved A Book Because It Was A Book; He Loved Its Odor, Its Form, Its Title. What He Loved In A Manuscript Was Its Old Illegible Date, The Bizarre And Strange Gothic Characters, The Heavy Gilding Which Loaded Its Drawings. It Was Its Pages Covered With Dust — Dust Of Which He Breathed The Sweet And Tender Perfume With Delight.
Sweet
Book
Character
Before Her Marriage She Had Thought That She Had Love Within Her Grasp; But Since The Happiness Which She Had Expected This Love To Bring Her Hadn’t Come, She Supposed She Must Have Been Mistaken. And Emma Tried To Imagine Just What Was Meant, In Life, By The Words “bliss,” “passion,” And “rapture” - Words That Had Seemed So Beautiful To Her In Books.
Beautiful
Book
Passion
Talent Is A Long Patience.
Long
Talent
Long Patience
I Invite All Brats To Throw Their Cookies At The Baker's Head If They're Not Sweet, Winos To Chuck Their Wine If It's Bad, The Dying To Shuck Their Souls When They Croak, And Men To Throw Their Existence In God's Face When It's Bitter
Sweet
Wine
Men
Antiquite . En Tout Ce Qui S'y Rapporte: Est Poncif, Embe" Tant! Etc. Antiquity. And Everything To Do With It, Cliche D And Boring.
Etc
Boring
Cliche
I Believe That If One Always Looked At The Skies, One Would End Up With Wings.
Nature
Believe
Sky
There Comes A Point At Which You Stop Writing And Think All The More
Writing
Thinking
Earth Has Its Boundaries, But Human Stupidity Is Limitless.
Stupidity
Earth
Limitless
Noble Characters And Pure Affections And Happy Scenes Are Very Comforting Things. They're A Refuge From Life's Disillusionments.
Character
Comforting
Noble
Je Suis Autant Chinois Que Fran C° Ais. I Am As Much Chinese As French.
Chinese
I Live Absolutely Like An Oyster.
Oysters
Sick, Irritated, And The Prey To A Thousand Discomforts, I Go On With My Labor Like A True Workingman, Who, With Sleeves Rolled Up, In The Sweat Of His Brow, Beats Away At His Anvil, Not Caring Whether It Rains Or Blows, Hails Or Thunders.
Rain
Caring
Blow
I Have Patience In All Things - As Far As The Antechamber.
Patience
Having Patience
All Things
What Baffled Him Was That There Should Be All This Fuss About Something So Simple As Love.
Simple
Baffled
Should
Whatever The Thing You Wish To Say, There Is But One Word To Express It, But One Verb To Give It Movement, But One Adjective To Qualify It; You Must Seek Until You Find This Noun, This Verb, This Adjective.
Writing
Giving
Wish
My God, This Novel Makes Me Break Out In A Cold Sweat! Do You Know How Much I've Written In Five Months, Since The End Of August? Sixty-five Pages! Each Paragraph Is Good In Itself And There Are Some Pages That Are Perfect. I Feel Certain. But Just Because Of This, It Isn't Getting On. It's A Series Of Well-turned, Ordered Paragraphs Which Do Not Flow On From Each Other. I Shall Have To Unscrew Them, Loosen The Joints, As One Does With The Masts Of A Ship When One Wants The Sail To Take More Wind.
Sweat
August
Wind
By Dint Of Railing At Idiots, One Runs The Risk Of Becoming An Idiot Oneself.
Running
Risk
Becoming
I Do Not Like To "interest" The Public With Myself.
Self
Fame
Interest
I Don't Believe That Happiness Is Possible, But I Think Tranquility Is.
Believe
Thinking
Tranquility
Talent Is Long Patience.
Patience
Writing
Long
Our Ignorance Of History Causes Us To Slander Our Own Times. The Ordinary Person Today Lives Better Than A King Did A Century Ago But Is Ungrateful!
Gratitude
Kings
Ignorance
Love Is A Springtime Plant That Perfumes Everything With Its Hope, Even The Ruins To Which It Clings.
Love
Literature
Ruins
A Thing Derided Is A Thing Dead; A Laughing Man Is Stronger Than A Suffering Man.
Laughter
Men
Laughing
Writing Is A Dog's Life, But The Only Life Worth Living.
Dog
Writing
Literature
I Sometimes Feel A Great Ennui, Profound Emptiness, Doubts Which Sneer In My Face In The Midst Of The Most Spontaneous Satisfactions. Well, I Would Not Exchange All That For Anything, Because It Seems To Me, In My Conscience, That I Am Doing My Duty, That I Am Obeying A Superior Fatality, That I Am Following The Good And That I Am In The Right.
Work
Profound
Doubt
I Am Alone On This Road Strewn With Bones And Bordered By Ruins! Angels Have Their Brothers, And Demons Have Their Infernal Companions. Yet I Have But The Sound Of My Scythe When It Harvests, My Whistling Arrows, My Galloping Horse. Always The Sound Of The Same Wave Eating Away At The World
Brother
Horse
Angel
One Must Always Hope When One Is Desperate, And Doubt When One Hopes.
Doubt
Desperate
The Most Important Quality Of Art And Its Aim Is Illusion; Emotion, Which Is Often Obtained By Certain Sacrifices Of Poetic Detail, Is Something Else Entirely And Of An Inferior Order.
Art
Sacrifice
Order
He Dreamed Of Funeral Love, But Dreams Crumble And The Tomb Abides
Dream
Funeral
Tombs
For Every Bourgeois, In The Heat Of Youth, If Only For A Day, For A Minute, Has Believed Himself Capable Of Immense Passions, Of Heroic Enterprises. The Most Mediocre Libertine Has Dreamed Of Oriental Princesses; Every Rotary Carries About Inside Him The Debris Of A Poet.
Princess
Passion
Rotary
Madame Aubain's Servant Felicite Was The Envy Of The Ladies Of Pont-l'eveque For Half A Century.
Book
Envy
Half
One Day, I Shall Explode Like An Artillery Shell And All My Bits Will Be Found On The Writing Table.
Writing
One Day
Shells
She Was The Amoureuse Of All The Novels, The Heroine Of All The Plays, The Vague “she” Of All The Poetry Books.
Book
Play
Heroines
The Principal Thing In This World Is To Keep One's Soul Aloft.
Soul
World
This World
Everything Which One Invents Is True, Be Sure Of It.
Truth
Creativity
Originality
I Have Dreamed Much And Have Done Very Little.
Done
Littles
It Is Splendid To Be A Great Writer, To Put Men Into The Frying Pan Of Your Words And Make Them Pop Like Chestnuts.
Men
Frying Pans
Chestnuts
… Her Heart Remained Empty Once More, And The Procession Of Days All Alike Began Again. So They Were Going To Follow One Another, Like This, In Line, Always Identical, Innumerable, Bringing Nothing!
Heart
Lines
Empty
Stupidity Is Something Unshakable; Nothing Attacks It Without Breaking Itself Against It; It Is Of The Nature Of Granite, Hard And Resistant.
Stupid
Literature
Unshakable
The True Poet For Me Is A Priest. As Soon As He Dons The Cassock, He Must Leave His Family.
Literature
Poet
Priests
Trending Author
Stirling Moss
Lev Grossman
Daniel J. Boorstin
John Malkovich
Emily Procter
Ron Silver
Category
Information