Our ignorance of history causes us to slander our own times.
I invite all brats to throw their cookies at the baker’s head if they’re not sweet, winos to chuck their wine if it’s bad, the dying to shuck their souls when they croak, and men to throw their existence in God’s face when it’s bitter.
There are three thing in the world I love most: the sea, Hamlet, and Don Giovanni.
A thing derided is a thing dead; a laughing man is stronger than a suffering man.
Anything becomes interesting if you look at it long enough.
One must always hope when one is desperate, and doubt when one hopes.
A memory is a beautiful thing, it’s almost a desire that you miss.
Madame Bovary is myself.
If you knew all the dreams I’ve dreamed!
Success as I see it is a result, not a goal.
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.
For some men, the stronger their desire, the more difficult it is for them to act.
On certain occasions art can shake very ordinary spirits, and whole worlds can be revealed by its clumsiest interpreters.
How you measure the performance of your managers directly affects the way they act.
The hearts of women are like those little pieces of furniture with secret hiding – places, full of drawers fitted into each other; you go a lot of trouble, break your nails, and in the bottom find some withered flower, a few grains of dust – or emptiness!
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.
I am alone on this road strewn with bones and bordered by ruins! Angels have their brothers, and demons have their infernal companions. Yet I have but the sound of my scythe when it harvests, my whistling arrows, my galloping horse. Always the sound of the same wave eating away at the world.
Casting aspersions on those we love always does something to loosen our ties. We shouldn’t maltreat our idols: the gilt comes off on our hands.
She was as sated with him as he was tired of her. Emma had rediscovered in adultery all the banality of marriage.
Art requires neither complaisance nor politeness; nothing but faith, faith and freedom.