“You can calculate the worth of a man by the number of his enemies, and the importance of a work of art by the harm that is spoken of it.”

14 June 1853
Correspondence, Letters to Madame Louise Colet

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update June 3, 2021. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "You can calculate the worth of a man by the number of his enemies, and the importance of a work of art by the harm that…" by Gustave Flaubert?
Gustave Flaubert photo
Gustave Flaubert 98
French writer (1821–1880) 1821–1880

Related quotes

Patrick Swift photo
Niccolo Machiavelli photo

“That which is good for the enemy harms you, and that which is good for you harms the enemy.”

Quello che giova al nimico nuoce a te, e quel che giova a te nuoce al nimico.
Rule 1 from Machiavelli's Lord Fabrizio Colonna: libro settimo (Book 7) http://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=njp.32101013672561;view=1up;seq=176 (Modern Italian uses nemico instead of nimico.)
The Art of War (1520)

Theo van Doesburg photo

“The complete and definitive work of art is created beyond one's individuality... The universal transcends such a level. Mere spontaneity has never created a work of art which possesses a lasting cultural value. The method leading to universal form is based upon calculations of measure and number.”

Theo van Doesburg (1883–1931) Dutch architect, painter, draughtsman and writer

Quote in his article 'Elementarism', as cited in De Stijl – Van Doesburg Issue, January 1932, pp. 17–19
1926 – 1931

David Hilbert photo

“One can measure the importance of a scientific work by the number of earlier publications rendered superfluous by it.”

David Hilbert (1862–1943) German prominent mathematician

Quoted in Mathematical Circles Revisited (1971) by Howard Whitley Eves

Wahbi Al-Hariri photo

“When a man's work is full of life and in harmony with his environment, it becomes a work worth studying.”

Wahbi Al-Hariri (1914–1994) Artist, architect, author

Wahbi al-Hariri-Rifai (1984), Traditional Architecture of Saudi Arabia-Drawings by Wahbi Al-Hariri-Rifai http://books.google.nl/books?id=iAr71OT2S10C&redir_esc=y - Smithsonian Exhibit Booklet - 1984, Washington, D.C.: GDG Exhibits Trust, GGKEY:XRBJ2X83K1K, retrieved on 24 June 2013. Quoted from the back cover of the book.

John Bartholomew Gough photo

“A man's enemies have no power to harm him, if he is true to himself and loyal to God.”

John Bartholomew Gough (1817–1886) Anglo-American temperance orator

Source: Dictionary of Burning Words of Brilliant Writers (1895), P. 208.

Kate Bush photo

“Sweet and gentle and sensitive man
With an obsessive nature and deep fascination
For numbers
And a complete infatuation with the calculation
Of π.”

Kate Bush (1958) British recording artist; singer, songwriter, musician and record producer

Song lyrics, Aerial (2005), A Sea of Honey (Disc 1)

Related topics