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.

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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

We shouldn't maltreat our idols: the gilt comes off on our hands.

Gustave Flaubert

Madame Bovary

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Read Madame Bovary at Project Gutenberg
More information about this quote
Topic
Idols

Author

Gustave Flaubert
Source
Madame Bovary
Medium
Novel
Language
French
Time
1857 1850s 19th century
Authentication Score 2
Original Citation

Flaubert, Gustave. Madame Bovary: Moeurs de Province [Madame Bovary: Provincial Manners]. Revue de Paris, 1 Oct. 1856 - 15 Dec. 1856. Serial.

Current Citation

Flaubert, Gustave. Madame Bovary, edited and translated by Lydia Davis. Penguin Classics, 2011, pt. 3, ch. 6.

Another quote from the 1860s

The story of our inferiority is an old dodge, as I have said: for wherever men oppress their fellows, wherever they enslave them, they will endeavor to find the needed apology for such enslavement and oppression in the character of the people oppressed and enslaved.

Frederick Douglass

More information about this quote
Topic
Oppressor and oppressed
Speaker
Frederick Douglass
Medium
Speech
Genre
Political speech
Language
English
Time
1865 1860s 19th century
Authentication Score 2
Original Citation

Douglass, Frederick. “What the Black Man Wants.” Annual Meeting of the Massachusetts Anti-Slavery Society. 26 Jan. 1865, Boston, MA, USA.

Current Citation

Douglass, Frederick. Great Speeches by Frederick Douglass. Dover Publications, 2013.

Another quote about Life

They lived und laughed ant loved end left.

James Joyce

Finnegans Wake

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More information about this quote
Topic
Looking back Life
Speaker
Jute

Author

James Joyce
Source
Finnegans Wake
Medium
Novel
Genre
Modernist literature
Statement Type
Epitaph
Language
English
Time
1939 1930s 20th century
Authentication Score 3
Original Citation

Joyce, James. Finnegans Wake. Faber and Faber, 1939.

Current Citation

Joyce, James. Finnegans Wake. Wordsworth, 2012.

Another quote from 1864

Music expresses that which cannot be said and on which it is impossible to be silent.

Victor Hugo

More information about this quote
Topic
Limits of language

Author

Victor Hugo
Source
William Shakespeare
Language
French
Time
1864 1860s 19th century
Authentication Score 3
Citation

Hugo, Victor. William Shakespeare. Paris: Lacroix & Verboeckhoven & Cie, 1864, pt. 1, bk. 2, ch. 4.

Another quote originally in French

To govern is to choose.

Pierre-Marc-Gaston de Lévis

More information about this quote
Topic
Political leadership Politics

Author

Pierre-Marc-Gaston de Lévis
Language
French
Time
1808 1800s 19th century
Authentication Score 1
Citation

Levis, Pierre Marc Gaston. "Maximes de Politique." Maximes et reflexions sur differents sujets. Paris, 1808, no. 19.