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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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

Life shrinks or expands in proportion to one's courage.

Anaïs Nin

More information about this quote
Topic
Courage Living life to the fullest Life

Author

Anaïs Nin
Source
Journals of Anaïs Nin
Medium
Personal journal
Language
English
Time
1941 1940s 20th century
Authentication Score 3
Citation

Nin, Anaïs. "June, 1941." The Diary of Anaïs Nin, vol. 3, 1939-1944, edited by Gunther Stuhlmann. Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, Inc., 1969.

Another quote from 1864

Taste...Is the only morality...Tell me what you like, and I'll tell you what you are.

John Ruskin

More information about this quote
Topic
Taste
Speaker
John Ruskin
Medium
Lecture
Language
English
Time
1864 1860s 19th century
Authentication Score 3
Original Citation

Ruskin, John. "Traffic." c. 1864, Town Hall, Bradford, England, UK. Lecture.

Current Citation

Ruskin, John. Traffic. Penguin UK, 2015.

Another quote originally in French

Remorse sleeps during a prosperous period but wakes up in adversity.

Jean-Jacques Rousseau

Confessions (Rousseau)

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More information about this quote
Topic
Remorse Regrets

Author

Jean-Jacques Rousseau
Source
Confessions (Rousseau)
Genre
Autobiography and memoir
Language
French
Time
1781 1780s 18th century
Authentication Score 2
Original Citation

Rousseau, Jean-Jacques. Les Confessions [The Confessions]. Aux Deux-Ponts: Chez Sanson Et Compagnie, 1782, bk. 2.

Current Citation

Rousseau, Jean-Jacques. Confessions, translated by Angela Scholar. Oxford University Press, 2008, pt. 1, bk. 2.