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

Fondly do we hope, fervently do we pray, that this mighty scourge of war may speedily pass away. Yet, if God wills that it continue until all the wealth piled by the bondsman's two hundred and fifty years of unrequited toil shall be sunk, and until every drop of blood drawn with the lash shall be paid by another drawn with the sword, as was said three thousand years ago, so still it must be said "the judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether."

Abraham Lincoln

Second Inaugural Address of Abraham Lincoln

Buy a book containing this speech at Amazon Buy a book containing this speech at Amazon
Read this speech at UVA's Miller Center website
More information about this quote
Topic
American Civil War God's will Slavery American politics God and America
Speaker
Abraham Lincoln
Source
Second Inaugural Address of Abraham Lincoln Presidential inaugural address
Medium
Speech
Genre
Political speech
Language
English
Time
1865 1860s 19th century
Authentication Score 2
Original Citation

Lincoln, Abraham. "Second Inaugural Address." 4 Mar. 1865, East Portico, US Capitol Building, Washington, DC, USA.

Current Citation

Lincoln, Abraham. "Second Inaugral Address, March 4, 1865." Abraham Lincoln: Speeches and Writings 1859-1865, edited by Don E. Fehrenbacher. Library of America, 2018.

Another quote about Art

The most perfect of all works of art is true political freedom.

Friedrich Schiller

More information about this quote
Topic
Freedom Art

Author

Friedrich Schiller
Medium
Treatise
Genre
Philosophical literature
Language
German
Time
1794 1790s 18th century
Authentication Score 3
Original Citation

Schiller, Friedrich. "Über die ästhetische Erziehung des Menschen in einer Reihe von Briefen [On the Aesthetic Education of Man]." Horen, Jan. 1795, letter 2.

Current Citation

Schiller, Friedrich. On the Aesthetic Education of Man, edited by Alexander Schimidt, translated by Kenneth Tribe. Penguin Classics, 2016, letter 2.

Another quote from 1864

Man is everywhere a disturbing agent. Wherever he plants his foot, the harmonies of nature are turned to discords.

George Perkins Marsh

Man and Nature

More information about this quote
Topic
Man and nature Environmental destruction

Author

George Perkins Marsh
Source
Man and Nature
Language
English
Time
1864 1860s 19th century
Authentication Score 3
Original Citation

Marsh, George Perkins. Man and Nature: Or, Physical Geography as Modified by Human Action. New York: Charles Scribner, 1864, ch. 1.

Current Citation

Marsh, George Perkins. Man and Nature: Or, Physical Geography as Modified by Human Action. Dover Publications, 2021, ch. 1.

Another quote originally in French

In the desert there is all-and yet nothing…God is there and man is not.

Honoré de Balzac

La Comédie humaine

Read A Passion in the Desert at Project Gutenberg
More information about this quote
Topic
The desert

Author

Honoré de Balzac
Source
A Passion in the Desert La Comédie humaine
Medium
Novel
Language
French
Time
1830 1820s 19th century
Authentication Score 2
Citation

De Balzac, Honoré. "Une passion dans le desert [A Passion in the Desert]." Revue de Paris, 26 Dec. 1830.