No matter: she wasn't happy, and never had been. Why was life so unsatisfactory? Why did everything she leaned on crumble instantly to dust? . . . Besides, nothing was worth looking for: everything was a lie! Every smile concealed a yawn of boredom; every joy, a curse; every pleasure, its own surfeit; and the sweetest kisses left on one's lips but a vain longing for a fuller delight.
About this quote
- What does it mean?
- The speaker feels that life is fundamentally dishonest and unsatisfying, where every pleasure hides a cost.
- In plain terms
- She feels life is full of lies and nothing brings real happiness.
- What can you take from it?
- Cynicism grows when repeated disappointments reveal hidden costs in pleasure.
Where it applies
Putting it to work
Questions to consider
- When has pleasure felt empty to you?
- Why do things lose value over time?
Another view
It reflects a temporary state of extreme distress rather than objective truth.
More from Gustave Flaubert
There isn't a bourgeois alive who in the ferment of his youth, if only for a day or for a minute, hasn't thought himself capable of boundless passions and nobl…
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Permalink to quote #79 Adultery, Emma was discovering, could be as banal as marriage.
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