Gustave Flaubert's quote
Gustave Flaubert (French pronunciation: ; December 12, 1821 – May 8, 1880) was a French writer who is counted among the greatest Western novelists. He is known especially for his first published novel, Madame Bovary (1857), for his Correspondence, and for his scrupulous devotion to his art and style.
He had the vanity to believe men did not like him – while men simply did not know him.
November
I go dreaming into the future, where I see nothing, nothing. I have no plans, no idea, no project, and, what is worse, no ambition. Something – the eternal ‘what’s the use?’ – sets its bronze barrier across every avenue that I open up in the realm of hypothesis.
Flaubert in Egypt: A Sensibility on Tour
Doubt … is an illness that comes from knowledge and leads to madness.
Memoirs of a Madman