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About this quote

What does it mean?
Flaubert depicts Leon's emotional decline, linking monotony and lack of purpose to deepening depression and lost love. It shows how routine harms mental health.
In plain terms
Repetitive life without purpose leads to depression.
What can you take from it?
Routine without purpose damages mental health and love.

Where it applies

  • career burnout
  • relationship issues
  • mental health

Putting it to work

  • find new interests
  • change your routine

Questions to consider

  • What gives your life purpose?
  • Are you stuck in a routine?

Another view

Some people find stability in routine.

More from Gustave Flaubert

  1. What exasperated her was Charles's total unawareness of her ordeal. His conviction that he was making her happy she took as a stupid insult: such self-righteou…

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  2. There was a silence. They looked at each other; and their thoughts clung together in their common anguish like two throbbing hearts.

    Permalink to quote #42
  3. And all this time she was torn by wild desires, by rage, by hatred. The trim folds of her dress hid a heart in turmoil, and her reticent lips told nothing of t…

    Permalink to quote #39

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