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About this quote

What does it mean?
Among all falsehoods, art is the least dishonest because it acknowledges its own artifice.
In plain terms
Art lies the least because it knows it's an art.
What can you take from it?
Art can be truthful about its own unreality.

Where it applies

  • criticizing media
  • discussing authenticity

Putting it to work

  • appreciate artistic honesty
  • use art to explore truth

Questions to consider

  • Can art ever be completely true?
  • Why does self‑awareness matter?

Another view

Some argue art can be profoundly deceptive.

More from Gustave Flaubert

  1. Madame Bovary is myself.

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  2. But there are moments when I feel I'm liquefying like an old Camembert, I'm so tired.

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  3. Be regular and orderly in your life like a bourgeois, so that you

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