Stupidity consists in wanting to reach conclusions. We are a thread, and we want to know the whole cloth.

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.

All you have to do to make something interesting is to look at it long enough.

A good sentence in prose should be like a good line in poetry, unchangeable, as rhythmic, as sonorous.

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.

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.

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.