Gustave Flaubert

“Stupidity is something unshakable nothing attacks it without breaking itself against it it is of the nature of granite, hard and resistant.”

“Caught up in life, you see it badly. You suffer from it or enjoy it too much. The artist, in my opinion, is a monstrosity, something outside of nature.”

“Everything one invents is true, you may be perfectly sure of that. Poetry is as precise as geometry.”

“Poetry is as precise a thing as geometry.”

“All one's inventions are true, you can be sure of that. Poetry is as exact a science as geometry.”

“Success is a consequence and must not be a goal.”

“There is no truth. There is only perception.”

“Be regular and orderly in your life, so that you may be violent and original in your work.”

“The better a work is, the more it attracts criticism it is like the fleas who rush to jump on white linens.”

“I love my work with a frenetic and perverse love, as an ascetic loves the hair shirt which scratches his belly.”