Quote #72

It wasn't the first time in their lives that they had seen trees, blue sky and lawn, or heard the flowing of water or the rustle of the breeze in the branches, but never before, certainly, had they looked on it all with such wonder: it was as though nature had not existed before, or had only begun to be beautiful with the slaking of their desires.

More from Gustave Flaubert

  1. His rage had sent him into Latin: he would have spouted Chinese or Greenlandic had he been able to, for he was in the throes of one of thos…
  2. She was the amoureuse of all the novels, the heroine of all the plays, the vague 'she' of all the poetry books.
  3. 'What's improper about it?' retorted the clerk. 'Everybody does it in Paris!' It was an irresistible and conclusive argument.
  4. A clear day's warmth will often move / A lass to stray in dreams of love
  5. The clerk assured her warmly that idealistic natures were rarely understood.
  6. Often, when they spoke of Paris, she would murmur: 'Ah! How happy we'd be, living there!' 'Aren't we happy here?' the young would softly as…
  7. As she listened to him, Madame Bovary marveled at how old she was: all those re-emerging details made her life seem vaster as though she ha…
  8. 'I well understand your doing this,' said the notary. 'A man of science can't be expected to burden himself with the practical details of e…

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