"To be stupid, selfish, and have good health are three requirements for happiness, though if stupidity is lacking, all is lost. (13 August 1846)"

Gustave Flaubert Literature See all quotes by Gustave Flaubert →

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More by Gustave Flaubert

“You can calculate]] the worth of a man by the number of his enemies, and the importance of a work of art by the harm that is spoken of it. (14 June 1853)”

“My deplorable mania for analysis exhausts me. I doubt everything, even my doubt.”

“Tout le monde, par excès de terreur, devenait brave.”

“C'était à Mégara, faubourg de Carthage, dans les jardins d'Hamilcar.”

“The artist must be in his work as God is in creation, invisible and all-powerful; one must sense him everywhere but never see him. (18 March 1857)”

“Everything one invents is true, you may be perfectly sure of that. Poetry is as precise as geometry. (14 August 1853)”

Resonant Thoughts

"Happiest is he who expects no happiness from others. Love delights and glorifies in giving, not receiving. So learn to love and give, and not to expect anything from others."

— Meher Baba

Philosophy1894–1969

#happiness

"Man needs difficulties; they are necessary for health."

— Carl Jung

Psychology1852–1924

#health

"This business of making people conscious of what is happening outside their own small circle is one of the major problems of our time, and a new literary technique will have to be evolved to meet it. …"

— George Orwell

performing arts1903–1950

#family

"You are the first person who has been able to illustrate the book adequately since Tenniel, though I still argue as I think I argued with you years ago that your Alice is a little bit too much of a ga…"

— Mervyn Peake

Literature1911–1968

#time