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.
Gustave FlaubertWhat 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.
Gustave FlaubertThe rage for wanting to conclude is one of the most deadly and most fruitless manias to befall humanity. Each religion and each philosophy has pretended to have God to itself, to measure the infinite, and to know the recipe for happiness. What arrogance and what nonsense! I see, to the contrary, that the greatest geniuses and the greatest works have never concluded.
Gustave FlaubertEmma was no asleep, she was pretending to be asleep; and, while he was dozing off at her side, she lay awake, dreaming other dreams.
Gustave FlaubertBetter to work for yourself alone. You do as you like and follow your own ideas, you admire yourself and please yourself: isnโt that the main thing? And then the public is so stupid. Besides, who reads? And what do they read? And what do they admire?
Gustave FlaubertArt requires neither complaisance nor politeness; nothing but faith, faith and freedom.
Gustave FlaubertBefore 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 hadnโt come, she supposed she must have been mistaken. And Emma tried to imagine just what was meant, in life, by the words โbliss,โ โpassion,โ and โraptureโ - words that had seemed so beautiful to her in books.
Gustave Flaubert