Quote #61

She was filled with wonderment at the discovery that there was a bliss greater than mere happiness -- a love different from and transcending all others -- a love without break and without end, a love that increased throughout eternity! . . . She conceived the idea of becoming a saint. She bought rosaries and festooned herself with holy medals; she wished she had an emerald-studded reliquary within reach at her bed's head, to kiss every night.

More from Gustave Flaubert

  1. The difficulties he foresaw were so formidable that he quickly banished the disagreeable subject from his mind.
  2. When she knelt at the gothic prie-dieu she addressed the Lord with the same ardent words she had formerly murmured to her lover in the ecst…
  3. She cast her eyes about her, longing for the earth to open up. Why not end it all? What was holding her back? She was free to act. And she …
  4. But that kind of happiness was doubtless a lie, invented to make one despair of any love. Now she well knew the true paltriness of the pass…
  5. But some day sooner or later our passion would have cooled -- inevitably -- it's the way with everything human.
  6. A mad idea seized her: he was gazing at her now! She was sure of it! She long to rush into his arms and seek refuge in his strength as in t…
  7. Nothing specific stood out against the vast background of the future that she thus evoked: the days were all of them splendid, and as alike…
  8. Self-confidence depends on surroundings: the same person talks quite differently in the drawing room and in the garret, and a rich woman's …

All Gustave Flaubert quotes