Human life is a sad show, undoubtedly: ugly, heavy and complex. Art has no other end, for people of feeling, than to conjure away the burden and bitterness.

Car la vie humaine est une triste boutique, décidément. – Une chose laide, lourde & compliquée. L'art n'a point d'autre but, pr les gens d'esprit, que d'en escamotter le fardeau & l'amertume.

Gustave Flaubert

More information about this quote

Topic

Purpose of art Art Life The human condition

Author

Gustave Flaubert

Source

Letters of Gustave Flaubert

Medium

Letter

Language

French

Time

1864 1860s 19th century

Occupation

Novelist Writer

From

France Europe

Authentication Score 1

Citation

Flaubert, Gustave. Letter to Amelie Bosquet. July 1864.

Illustrated Quote

A quote by Gustave Flaubert about purpose of art: “Human life is a sad show, undoubtedly: ugly, heavy and complex. Art has…”
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A quote by Gustave Flaubert about purpose of art: “Human life is a sad show, undoubtedly: ugly, heavy and complex. Art has…”
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A quote by Gustave Flaubert about purpose of art: “Human life is a sad show, undoubtedly: ugly, heavy and complex. Art has…”
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Related Quotes

Below are one or more quotes that share at least one tag with the quote at the top of the page

Another quote by Gustave Flaubert

See many skies and seas.

Gustave Flaubert

More information about this quote
Topic
Broadening one's horizons Travel

Author

Gustave Flaubert
Source
Letters of Gustave Flaubert
Medium
Letter
Statement Type
Advice
Language
French
Time
1857 1850s 19th century
Authentication Score 1
Citation

Flaubert, Gustave. Letter to Mademoiselle Leroyer de Chantepie. c. 1840.

Another quote from the 1860s

There can be no progress (real, that is, moral) except in the individual and by the individual himself.

Charles Baudelaire

More information about this quote
Topic
Personal growth Nature of progress Progress

Author

Charles Baudelaire
Language
French
Time
1867 1860s 19th century
Authentication Score 3
Original Citation

Baudelaire, Charles. Mon Coeur mis a nu [My Naked Heart]. Paris, 1887, no. 15.

Current Citation

Baudelaire, Charles. "My Heart Laid Bare." Late Fragments: Flares, My Heart Laid Bare, Prose Poems, Belgium Disrobed, translated by Richard Sieburth. Yale University Press, 2022, no. 15.

Another quote about The human condition

Sic transit gloria mundi.

More information about this quote
Topic
Impermanence Mortality Vanitas The human condition
Language
Latin
Authentication Score 1
Citation

Papal coronation ceremonies from c. 1409-1963, https://aleteia.org/2019/03/02/sic-transit-gloria-mundi-was-once-a-common-warning-to-new-popes/

Another quote from 1864

If slavery is not wrong, nothing is wrong.

Abraham Lincoln

Read the full text of this speech at umich.edu
More information about this quote
Topic
Slavery

Author

Abraham Lincoln
Source
Letters of Abraham Lincoln
Medium
Letter
Genre
Political speech
Language
English
Time
1864 1860s 19th century
Authentication Score 2
Original Citation

Lincoln, Abraham. Letter to Albert G. Hodges. 4 Apr. 1864.

Current Citation

Lincoln, Abraham. "To Albert G. Hodges, April 4, 1864." Abraham Lincoln: Speeches and Writings 1859-1865, edited by Don E. Fehrenbacher. Library of America, 1989.

Another quote originally in French

We know the truth, not only by the reason, but by the heart.

Blaise Pascal

Pensées

Buy Pensées at Amazon Buy Pensées at Amazon
Read Pensees at Project Gutenberg
More information about this quote
Topic
Knowing the truth Truth Limits of reason Intuition

Author

Blaise Pascal
Source
Pensées
Medium
Epigram
Genre
Philosophical literature
Language
French
Time
1670 1670s 17th century
Authentication Score 3
Original Citation

Pascal, Blaise. Pensées [Thoughts]. Paris: Chez G. Desprez, 1670, no. 1.

Current Citation

Pascal, Blaise. "Pensées." Pensées and Other Writings, edited by Anthony Levi, translated by Honor Levi. Oxford University Press, 2008, no. 1.