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About this quote

What does it mean?
Reading should be about experiencing life deeply rather than just entertainment or status.
In plain terms
Read to live deeply not just to have fun or get smart.
What can you take from it?
Reading transforms life rather than just entertaining or educating.

Where it applies

  • self improvement
  • literary discussion
  • personal growth

Putting it to work

  • choosing books
  • teaching literature
  • setting reading goals

Questions to consider

  • Why do you read?
  • How does reading change your life?

Another view

Education and entertainment are also valid reasons to read.

More from Gustave Flaubert

  1. The artist must be in his work as God is in creation, invisible and all-powerful; one must sense him everywhere but never see him.

    Permalink to quote #8
  2. Axion: hatred of the bourgeois is the beginning of wisdom.

    Permalink to quote #10
  3. Everything one invents is true, you may be perfectly sure of that. Poetry is as precise as geometry.

    Permalink to quote #7

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