““Flaubert teaches you to gave upon the truth and not blink from its consequences; he teaches you, with Montaigne, to sleep on the pillow of doubt; he teaches you to dissect out the constituent parts of reality, and to observe the Nature is always a mixture of genres; he teaches you the most exact use of language; he teaches you not to approach a book in search of moral or social pills -- literature is not a pharmacopoeia; he teaches the pre-eminence of Truth, Beauty, Feeling and Style. And if you study his private life, he teaches courage, stoicism, friendship; the importance of intelligence, skepticism and wit; the folly of cheap patriotism; the virtue of being able to remain by yourself in your own room; the hatred of hypocrisy; distrust of the doctrinaire; the need for plain speaking.””
![“I am finishing a biography of [Gustave] Flaubert. Because he is the opposite of what I am. One needs to rub up against argument.” quote by Jean-Paul Sartre](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/img-quotes/b23/jean-paul-sartre-220_argument_i-am-finishing-a-biography-of-gustave-fl_1324743.jpg)
![“Monsieur Flaubert is not a writer. [1857]” quote by Le Figaro](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/img-quotes/f0b/le-figaro-255782_bad-reviews_monsieur-flaubert-is-not-a-writer-1857-1_1367559.jpg)
