"All one's inventions are true, you can be sure of that. Poetry is as exact a science as geometry"

Gustave Flaubert's quote, "All one's inventions hold true, you can be sure of that. Poetry is as exact a science as geometry", reflects a profound viewpoint on creativity, fact, and the nature of creative expression. At its core, the declaration suggests that the products of our imagination, particularly in the arts, hold an intrinsic reality. This contrasts with a conventional understanding of fact, which is often associated with empirical realities and concrete truths.

The phrase "all one's innovations hold true" implies that the creations of the mind have a reality of their own. This truth might not manifest in the real world but lives in the realm of concepts, emotions, and subjective experiences. In this sense, when artists-- poets, authors, painters-- produce their work, they take advantage of a personal truth as legitimate as any scientific truth. Flaubert is elevating the concept of subjective fact to stand alongside objective fact. This assertion is substantial in comprehending art's role in human experience, as it acknowledges that art captures and conveys the essence of human emotion and idea, which can be just as impactful as concrete evidence.

When Flaubert claims, "Poetry is as exact a science as geometry", he equates the accuracy of creative creation with the rigor of clinical questions. Geometry, with its axioms and evidence, is a discipline specified by exactness. By drawing this parallel, Flaubert highlights the meticulous nature of crafting poetry and art. Every word, rhyme, and meter in poetry is picked with precision to evoke specific feelings or ideas, much like a geometric proof is built to demonstrate a theorem. Both poetry and geometry require an understanding of their respective systems and an ability to navigate them skillfully.

Ultimately, Flaubert's quote works as a defense of creative expression against allegations of being frivolous or false. It asserts that the subjective truths conjured by artists are as considerable and rigorous in their creation as the objective truths looked for by scientists, stressing that both domains contribute indispensably to the broader understanding of what it indicates to be human.