Prose was born yesterday-this is what we must tell ourselves. Poetry is pre-eminently the medium of past literatures. All the metrical combinations have been tried but nothing like this can be said of prose.

La prose est née d’hier, voilà ce qu’il faut se dire. Le vers est la forme par excellence des littératures anciennes. Toutes les combinaisons prosodiques ont été faites, mais celles de la prose, tant s’en faut.

Gustave Flaubert

More information about this quote

Topic

Poetry and prose Prose Poetry

Author

Gustave Flaubert

Source

Letters of Gustave Flaubert

Medium

Letter

Language

French

Time

1852 1850s 19th century

Occupation

Novelist Writer

From

France Europe

Authentication Score 3

Original Citation

Flaubert, Gustave. Letter to Louise Colet. 24 Apr. 1852.

Current Citation

Flaubert, Gustave. The Letters of Gustave Flaubert 1830-1857, translated and edited by Francis Steegmuller. Faber and Faber, 1981.

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A quote by Gustave Flaubert about poetry and prose: “Prose was born yesterday-this is what we must tell ourselves.”
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A quote by Gustave Flaubert about poetry and prose: “Prose was born yesterday-this is what we must tell ourselves.”
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A quote by Gustave Flaubert about poetry and prose: “Prose was born yesterday-this is what we must tell ourselves.”
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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 1850s

Build thee more stately mansions, O my soul,
As the swift seasons roll!
Leave thy low-vaulted past!

Oliver Wendell Holmes

The Chambered Nautilus

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More information about this quote
Topic
Self-improvement Formation of character

Author

Oliver Wendell Holmes
Source
The Chambered Nautilus The Atlantic
Medium
Poem Magazine
Language
English
Time
1858 1850s 19th century
Authentication Score 3
Citation

Holmes, Oliver Wendell, Sr. "The Chambered Nautilus." The Atlantic Monthly. Boston: Phillips, Sampson and Company, Feb. 1858, st. 5.

Another quote about Poetry

Among all men on Earth, bards have a share of honor and reverence, because the Muse has taught them songs, and loves the race of bards.

Homer

The Odyssey

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More information about this quote
Topic
Poets Poetry Stories
Speaker
Odysseus

Author

Homer
Source
The Odyssey
Medium
Poem
Genre
Epic poem
Language
Greek
Time
700 BC 700s BC 9th century BC
Authentication Score 2
Original Citation

Homer. Ὀδύσσεια [Odyssey]. c. 710 BC, bk. 8, l. 479-481

Current Citation

Homer. The Odyssey, edited by Bernard Knox, translated by Robert Fagles. Penguin Classics, 2006, bk. 8, l. 479-481.

Another quote originally in French

The body politic, like the human body, begins to die from its birth, and bears in itself the cause of its destruction.

Jean-Jacques Rousseau

The Social Contract

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More information about this quote
Topic
Political community Things get worse

Author

Jean-Jacques Rousseau
Source
The Social Contract
Genre
Political literature Philosophical literature
Language
French
Time
1762 1760s 18th century
Authentication Score 2
Original Citation

Rousseau, Jean-Jacques. Du contrat social ou Principes du droit politique [On the Social Contract or Principles of Political Law]. Amsterdam: Marc Michel Rey, 1762, bk. 3, ch. 11.

Current Citation

Rousseau, Jean-Jacques. "Of the Social Contract." Of the Social Contract and Other Political Writings, translated by Quintin Hoare. Penguin Classics, 2012, bk. 3, ch. 11.