"He had so often heard these things said that they did not strike him as original. Emma was like all his mistresses; and the charm of novelty, gradually falling away like a garment, laid bare the eternal monotony of passion, which has always the same forms and the same language. He did not distinguish, this man of so much experience, the difference of sentiment beneath the sameness of expression. Because lips that were libertine and venal had murmured such words to him, he believed little in the candour of hers. One should be able to tone down, he thought, those exaggerated speeches that mask lack of feeling - as if the fullness of the soul did not sometimes overflow in the emptiest metaphors. No one can ever give the exact measure of his needs, nor of his conceptions, nor of his sorrows. The human language is like a cracked kettle on which we beat out a tune for dancing bears, when we hope with our music to move the stars."
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This is my favorite passage of Madame Bovary. I think it applies to this discussion…
“One should be able to tone down, Zadie thought, those exaggerated speeches that mask lack of feeling - as if the fullness of the soul did not sometimes overflow in the emptiest Facebook wall posts.”
