A man of letters, merely by reading a phrase, can estimate exactly the literary merit of its author. Marcel Proust More Quotes by Marcel Proust More Quotes From Marcel Proust It is in moments of illness that we are compelled to recognize that we live not alone but chained to a creature of a different kingdom, whole worlds apart, who has no knowledge of us and by whom it is impossible to make ourselves understood: our body. Marcel Proust cancerfitnessknowledge Pleasures are like photographs: in the presence of the person we love, we take only negatives, which we develop later, at home, when we have at our disposal once more our inner dark room, the door of which it is strictly forbidden to open while others are present. Marcel Proust darkhomedoors Habit is a second nature which prevents us from knowing the first, of which it has neither the cruelties nor the enchantments. Marcel Proust enchantmentknowingfirsts The fixity of a habit is generally in direct proportion to its absurdity. Marcel Proust absurdityproportionhabit When we are in love, our love is too big a thing for us to be able altogether to contain it within ourselves. It radiates towards the loved one, finds there a surface which arrests it, forcing it to return to its starting-point, and it is this repercussion of our own feeling which we call the other's feelings and which charms us more then than on its outward journey because we do not recognise it as having originated in ourselves. Marcel Proust journeyfeelingslove-is Theoretically, we know that the world turns, but in fact we do not notice it, the earth on which we walk does not seem to move andwe live on in peace. This is how it is concerning Time in our lives. And to render its passing perceptible, novelists must... have their readers cross ten, twenty, thirty years in two minutes. Marcel Proust readingtimemoving Every kiss provokes another. Oh, in those earliest days of love how naturally the kisses spring to life! So closely, in their profusion, do they crowd together that lovers would find it as hard to count the kisses exchanged in an hour as to count the flowers in a meadow in May. Marcel Proust kissingflowerspring In theory one is aware that the earth revolves, but in practice one does not perceive it, the ground upon which one treads seems not to move, and one can live undisturbed. So it is with Time in one's life. Marcel Proust timelifemoving However, the danger in [socially unbalanced relationships] is that the subjection of the woman temporarily calms the man's jealousy but also renders it more demanding. He ends up making his mistress live like those prisoners on whom light is shone day and night in order for them to be better watched. And things always end in tragedy. Marcel Proust lightmennight A woman whom we need and who makes us suffer elicits from us a whole gamut of feelings far more profound and vital than a man of genius who interests us. Marcel Proust feelingsmenprofound So we don't believe that life is beautiful because we don't recall it but if we get a whiff of a long-forgotten smell we are suddenly intoxicated and similarly we think we no longer love the dead because we don't remember them but if by chance we come across an old glove we burst into tears. Marcel Proust beautifulbelievethinking When I was small child, all that belonged to conservative society was fashionable, and no republicans were welcome in the smartersalons. People living in such a milieu could imagine that the impossibility of ever inviting an "opportunist", much less a "radical", was a thing that would last forever, like gas lamps and horse-drawn omnibuses. But similar to kaleidoscopes turning from time to time, society successively places in various ways elements which were thought to be immutable and creates a new composition. Marcel Proust horsefashionchildren The moments of the past do not remain still; they retain in our memory the motion which drew them towards the future, towards a future which has itself become the past, and draw us on in their train. Marcel Proust momentsmemoriespast There are optical illusions in time as well as space. Marcel Proust optical-illusionsillusionspace ... we made much less happy by the kindness of a great writer, which strictly speaking we find only in his books, than we suffer from the hostility of a woman whom we have not chosen for her intelligence, but whom we cannot stop ourselves from loving. Marcel Proust kindnesshappylove The highest praise of God consists in the denial of him by the atheist who finds creation so perfect that it can dispense with a creator. Marcel Proust denialatheistperfect That abominable and sensual act called reading the newspaper, thanks to which all the misfortunes and cataclysms in the universe over the last twenty-four hours, the battles which cost the lives of fifty-thousand men, the murders, the strikes, the bankruptcies, the fires, the poisonings, the suicides, the divorces, the cruel emotions of statesmen and actors, are transformed for us, who don't even care, into a morning treat, blending in wonderfully, in a particularly exciting and tonic way, with the recommended ingestion of a few sips of cafe au lait. Marcel Proust readingsuicidemorning ...a writer's works, like the water in an artesian well, mount to a height which is in proportion to the depth to which suffering has penetrated his soul. Marcel Proust soulsufferingwater Our passions shape our books, repose writes them in the intervals. Marcel Proust passionwritingbook It is always thus, impelled by a state of mind which is destined not to last, we make our irrevocable decisions Marcel Proust lastsdecisionmind
