People wish to learn to swim and at the same time to keep one foot on the ground. Marcel Proust More Quotes by Marcel Proust More Quotes From Marcel Proust We can only be faithful to what we remember, and we remember only what we have known. Marcel Proust being-faithful faithful remember When I went to Venice I found that my dream had become-incredibly, but quite simply-my address. Marcel Proust venice addresses dream People who laugh so heartily at what they themselves have said, when it is not funny, dispense us accordingly, by taking upon themselves the responsibility for the mirth, from joining in it. Marcel Proust joining-in responsibility people We only really know what is new, what suddenly introduces to our sensibility a change of tone which strikes us, that for which habit has not yet substituted its pale fac-similes. Marcel Proust introducing tone habit It is not because other people are dead that our affection for them grows faint, it is because we ourselves are dying. Marcel Proust dying literature people A man who falls straight into bed night after night, and ceases to live until the moment when he wakes and rises, will surely never dream of making, I don't say great discoveries, but even minor observations about sleep. He scarcely knows that he is asleep. A little insomnia is not without its value in making us appreciate sleep, in throwing a ray of light upon that darkness. Marcel Proust dream sleep fall There is no doubt that a person's charms are less frequently a cause of love than a remark such as: 'No, this evening I shan't be free'. Marcel Proust evening causes doubt We may, indeed, say that the hour of death is uncertain, but when we say this we think of that hour as situated in a vague and remote expanse of time; it does not occur to us that it can have any connexion with the day that has already dawned and can mean that death -- or its first assault and partial possession of us, after which it will never leave hold of us again -- may occur this very afternoon, so far from uncertain, this afternoon whose time-table, hour by hour, has been settled in advance. Marcel Proust doe mean thinking So long as I know what's boiling in my pot I don't bother my head about what's in other people's. Marcel Proust pot long people True variety is in that plenitude of real and unexpected elements, in the branch charged with blue flowers thrusting itself, against all expectations, from the springtime hedge which seems already too full, while the purely formal imitation of varietyis but void and uniformity, that is, that which is most opposed to variety. Marcel Proust flower real art Let but a single flash of reality -- the glimpse of a woman from afar or from behind -- enable us to project the image of Beauty before our eyes, and we imagine that we have recognised it, our hearts beat, and we will always remain half-persuaded that it was She, provided that the woman has vanished: it is only if we manage to overtake her that we realise our mistake. Marcel Proust eye mistake heart A fashionable milieu is one in which everybody's opinion is made up of the opinion of all the others. Has everybody a different opinion? Then it is a literary milieu. Marcel Proust opinion different literature Le bonheur est dans l'amour un e tat anormal. In love, happiness is abnormal. Marcel Proust l-amour amour abnormal Aristocracy is a relative thing. And there are plenty of out-of-the-way places where the son of an upholsterer is the arbiter of fashion and reigns over a court like any young Prince of Wales. Marcel Proust aristocracy fashion son The great renunciation of old age as it prepared for death, wraps itself up in its chrysalis, which may be observed at the end of lives that are at all prolonged, even in old lovers who have lived for one another, in old friends bound by the closest ties of mutual sympathy, who, after a certain year, cease to make the necessary journey or even to cross the street to see one another, cease to correspond, and know that they will communicate no more in this world. Marcel Proust ties journey years How paradoxical it is to search reality for the pictures that are stored in one's memory. Marcel Proust paradoxical memories reality This labour of the artist to discover a means of apprehending beneath matter and experience, beneath words, something different from their appearance, is of an exactly contrary nature to the operation in which pride, passion, intelligence and habit are constantly engaged within us when we spend our lives without self-communion, accumulating as though to hide our true impressions, the terminology for practical ends which we falsely call life. Marcel Proust passion pride mean You can't learn the truth about a man's intentions by asking him. Marcel Proust intention asking men If there is one thing more difficult than submitting oneself to a regime it is refraining from imposing it on other people. Marcel Proust difficult regimes people For theories and schools, like microbes and corpuscles, devour one another and by their strife ensure the continuity of life. Marcel Proust continuity-of-life strife school
