Madame Bovary (Gustave Flaubert)

Quotes from Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert:

• 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?
• An infinity of passion can be contained in one minute, like a crowd in a small space.
• 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.
• Never touch your idols: the gilding will stick to your fingers.
• Of all the icy blasts that blow on love, a request for money is the most chilling.
• “Doesn't it seem to you," asked Madame Bovary, "that the mind moves more freely in the presence of that boundless expanse, that the sight of it elevates the soul and gives rise to thoughts of the infinite and the ideal?”
• The most exaggerated speeches usually hid the weakest feelings.
• It was the fault of destiny!
• Irony is the path that leads safely back to official realities.