Quotes of All Topics . Occasions . Authors
It seems to me that I have always existed and that I possess memories that date back to the Pharaohs.
A good sentence in prose should be like a good line in poetry, unchangeable, as rhythmic, as sonorous.
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.
One mustn't look at the abyss, because there is at the bottom an inexpressible charm which attracts us.
There are two infinities that confuse me: the one in my soul devours me; the one around me will crush me
I hate that which we have decided to call realism, even though I have been made one of its high priests.
Stupidity consists in wanting to reach conclusions. We are a thread, and we want to know the whole cloth.
The only way to avoid being unhappy is to close yourself up in Art and to count for nothing all the rest.
Sentences must stir in a book like leaves in a forest, each distinct from each despite their resemblance.
The better a work is, the more it attracts criticism; it is like the fleas who rush to jump on white linens.
The great natures which are good, are above everything generous and don't begrudge the giving of themselves.
The whole dream of democracy is to raise the proletarian to the level of stupidity attained by the bourgeois.
But some day sooner or later our passion would have cooled - inevitably - it's the way with everything human.
One must laugh and weep, love, work, enjoy and suffer, in short vibrate as much as possible in all his being.
As words have an effective power of their own, curses reported against someone might turn against the speaker.
She was the amoureuse of all the novels, the heroine of all the plays, the vague “she” of all the poetry books.
I love my work with a frenetic and perverse love, as an ascetic loves the hair shirt which scratches his belly.
Be orderly and disciplined in daily life, like a good bourgeois, so that I might be wild and violent in my art.
Only three things are infinite. The sky in its stars, the sea in its drops of water, and the heart in its tears.
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.
It's a delicious thing to write. To be no longer yourself but to move in an entire universe of your own creating.
She was as sated with him as he was tired of her. Emma had rediscovered in adultery all the banality of marriage.
On spinach: I dislike it, and am happy to dislike it because if I liked it I would eat it, and I cannot stand it.
It is splendid to be a great writer, to put men into the frying pan of your words and make them pop like chestnuts.
It’s hard to communicate anything exactly and that’s why perfect relationships between people are difficult to find.
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.
After the pain of this disappointment her heart once more stood empty, and the succession of identical days began again.
Axiome: la haine du bourgeois est le commencement de la vertu. Axiom: Hatred of the bourgeois is the beginning of wisdom.
On certain occasions art can shake very ordinary spirits, and whole worlds can be revealed by its clumsiest interpreters.
A rich woman seems to have all her banknotes about her, guarding her virtue, like a cuirass, in the lining of her corset.
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.
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.
To be stupid, selfish, and have good health are three requirements for happiness, though if stupidity is lacking, all is lost.
There are some men whose only mission among others is to act as intermediaries; one crosses them like bridges and keeps going.
Thought is the greatest of pleasures —pleasure itself is only imagination—have you ever enjoyed anything more than your dreams?
We must laugh and cry, enjoy and suffer, in a word, vibrate to our full capacity … I think that’s what being really human means.
Noble characters and pure affections and happy scenes are very comforting things. They're a refuge from life's disillusionments.
Do not read, as children do, to amuse yourself, or like the ambitious, for the purpose of instruction. No, read in order to live.
What an awful thing life is, isn’t it? It’s like soup with lots of hairs floating on the surface. You have to eat it nevertheless.
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.
Antiquite . en tout ce qui s'y rapporte: Est poncif, embe" tant! etc. Antiquity. And everything to do with it, cliche d and boring.
Language is a cracked kettle on which we beat out tunes for bears to dance to, while all the time we long to move the stars to pity.
Emma was no asleep, she was pretending to be asleep; and, while he was dozing off at her side, she lay awake, dreaming other dreams.
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.
That man has missed something who has never left a brothel at sunrise feeling like throwing himself into the river out of pure disgust.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.