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

I do order and declare that all persons held as slaves within said designated States, and parts of States, are, and henceforward shall be free; and that the Executive government of the United States, including the military and naval authorities thereof, will recognize and maintain the freedom of said persons.

Abraham Lincoln

Emancipation Proclamation

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Read the Emancipation Proclamation at umich.edu
More information about this quote
Topic
End of slavery Slavery
Speaker
Abraham Lincoln
Source
Emancipation Proclamation
Genre
Political literature
Language
English
Time
1862 1860s 19th century
Authentication Score 2
Original Citation

Lincoln, Abraham. "Final Emancipation Proclamation," or "Proclamation 95." 22 Sept. 1862.

Current Citation

Lincoln, Abraham. "Final Emancipation Proclamation, January 1, 1863." Abraham Lincoln: Speeches and Writings 1859-1865, edited by Don E. Fehrenbacher. Library of America, 1989.

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

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

The most decisive actions of our life-I mean those that our most likely to decide the whole course of our future-are more often than not, unconsidered.

Andre Gide

The Counterfeiters

More information about this quote
Topic
Inflection points
Speaker
Hildebrant

Author

Andre Gide
Source
The Counterfeiters
Medium
Novel
Statement Type
Paradox
Language
French
Time
1926 1920s 20th century
Authentication Score 3
Original Citation

Gide, Andre. Les Faux-monnayeurs [The Counterfeiters]. Nouvelle Revue Francaise, 1925, pt. 3, ch. 16.

Current Citation

Gide, Andre. The Counterfeiters, translated by Dorothy Bussy. Penguin Books, 1990, pt. 3, ch. 16.