Gustave Flaubert

"Ah! In fact there are two moralities ... The petty one, the conventional one, the one devised by men, that keeps changing and bellows so loudly, making a commotion down here among us, in a perfectly pedestrian way ... But the other one, the eternal one, is all around and above us, like a landscape that surrounds us and the blue sky that gives us light."

7 likes

Source: Gustave Flaubert (2010). “Madame Bovary: (Penguin Classics Deluxe Edition)”, p.133, Penguin

About the author

Gustave Flaubert

Gustave Flaubert

Novelist

Gustave Flaubert was a French novelist known for his meticulous style and his influential work, 'Madame Bovary,' which critiques romanticism and explores human emotions.

All quotes by Gustave Flaubert →

Same author

More quotes by Gustave Flaubert

See all →
Gustave Flaubert Novelist

"I will cover you with love when next I see you, with caresses, with ecstasy. I want to gorge you with all the joys of the flesh, so that you faint and die. I want you to be amazed by me, and to confess to yourself that you had never even dreamed of such transports.... When you are old, I want you to recall those few hours, I want your dry bones to quiver with joy when you think of them."

Read quote