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.

DAGUERREOTYPE Will take the place of painting. (See PHOTOGRAPHY.) (From The Dictionary of Received Ideas, assembled from notes Flaubert made in the 1870s.)

Reality does not conform to the ideal, but confirms it.

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.

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.

I don't believe that happiness is possible, but I think tranquility is.

It's a delicious thing to write. To be no longer yourself but to move in an entire universe of your own creating.