GUSTAVE FLAUBERT’S MADAME BOVARY
feel free to change pronouns, etc!
“Human speech is like a cracked kettle on which we tap crude rhythms for bears to dance to“
“We long to make music that will melt the stars.”
“Never touch your idols: the gilding will stick to your fingers.“
“What better occupation, really, than to spend the evening at the fireside with a book, with the wind beating on the windows and the lamp burning bright.”
“Haven't you ever happened to come across in a book some vague notion that you've had, some obscure idea that returns from afar and that seems to express completely your most subtle feelings?”
“You forget everything.”
“One's duty is to feel what is great, cherish the beautiful, and to not accept the conventions of society with the ignominy that it imposes upon us.”
“She was not happy--she never had been.”
“Such was the will of God!“
“I'm absolutely removed from the world at such times...The hours go by without my knowing it.”
“I care little who has placed us here below to fulfil our duties as citizens and fathers of families; but I don't need to go to church to kiss silver plates, and fatten, out of my pocket, a lot of good-for-nothings who live better than we do.”
“I detest common heroes and moderate feelings, the sort that exist in real life”
“It was the fault of destiny!”
“Let us remember that literature is of no use whatever, except in the very special case of somebody's wishing to become, of all things, a Professor of Literature.”
“She was in love.“
“A man, on the contrary, should he not know everything, excel in manifold activities, initiate you into the energies of passion, the refinements of life, all mysteries?”
"But the most wretched thing — is it not? — is to drag out, as I do, a useless existence. If our pains were only of some use to someone, we should find consolation in the thought of the sacrifice.”
“Self-confidence depends on environment.”
“Leave me alone! You’re creasing my dress.”
“Beautiful things spoil nothing.”
'Weren't you happy? Is it my fault? I did all I could!'
"Good Heavens! Why did I marry?”
“Why, like all men, you are all evil!”
"Adieu! adieu! When shall I see you again?”