Knowing a thing does not always mean preventing a thing, but at least the things we know, we hold, if not in our hands, at least in our minds where we can arrange them as we like, which gives us the illusion of a sort of power over them.
Marcel Proust
Knowledge, Power, Mind Arrangement, Mental Illusion, Perceived Control, Inner Perception
Marcel Proust’s Quotes On Topics
Disappointment Success | Longing Reflection | Obligatory Visits | Quiet Affection | Action | Emotional Perspective | Mental Resilience | Create Atmosphere | Heart Injury | Interpersonal Dynamics | Desire Transformation | Dispensary | Handkerchief | Passions | Sensibility | Cloud | Cluttered House | Willful Recall | Environmental Influence | Parting Emotions | More
More Marcel Proust Quotes
“But the presence of Odette continued to sow in Swann’s heart alternate seeds of love and suspicion.” Marcel Proust
Love, Suspicion, Heart, Seeds, Emotional Conflict, Mixed Feelings
Marcel Proust Love, Suspicion, Heart, Seeds, Emotional Conflict, Mixed Feelings“So that every fresh encounter is a sort of rectification, which brings us back to what we really did see. We have no longer any recollection of this, to such an extent does what we call remembering a person consist really in forgetting him.” Marcel Proust
Memory, Fresh Encounters, Recollection, Forgetting Person, Rectifying Perception, Personal Connection
Marcel Proust Memory, Fresh Encounters, Recollection, Forgetting Person, Rectifying Perception, Personal Connection“We see things but we don’t see them, like things that slid through the mind, one flowing into another.” Marcel Proust
Perception, Mind Flow, Visual Blurring, Overlapping Thoughts, Subtle Vision, Hidden Details
Marcel Proust Perception, Mind Flow, Visual Blurring, Overlapping Thoughts, Subtle Vision, Hidden Details“A sort of egotistical self-evaluation is unavoidable in those joys in which erudition and art mingle and in which aesthetic pleasure may become more acute, but not remain as pure.” Marcel Proust
Art, Aesthetic Joy, Egotistical Reflection, Erudition Mingle, Impure Pleasure, Self-Evaluation
Marcel Proust Art, Aesthetic Joy, Egotistical Reflection, Erudition Mingle, Impure Pleasure, Self-Evaluation“Love is space and time made perceptible to the heart.” Marcel Proust
Love, Space, Time Perceptible, Heart Connection, Emotional Dimension, Timeless Affection
Marcel Proust Love, Space, Time Perceptible, Heart Connection, Emotional Dimension, Timeless Affection“Perhaps the immobility of the things that surround us is forced upon them by our conviction that they are themselves, and not anything else, and by the immobility of our conceptions of them.” Marcel Proust
Immobility, Surroundings, Conceptions, Static Perceptions, Mental Constructs, Forced Beliefs
Marcel Proust Immobility, Surroundings, Conceptions, Static Perceptions, Mental Constructs, Forced Beliefs“What we have not had to decipher, to elucidate by our own efforts, what was clear before we looked at it, is not ours. From ourselves comes only that which we drag forth from the obscurity which lies within us, that which to others is unknown.” Marcel Proust
Efforts, Obscurity, Internal Clarity, Self Discovery, Unknown Depths, Intellectual Work
Marcel Proust Efforts, Obscurity, Internal Clarity, Self Discovery, Unknown Depths, Intellectual Work“We shall see later on that the diversity of the forms of death that circulate invisibly is the cause of the peculiar unexpectedness of obituary notices in the newspapers.” Marcel Proust
Death, Obituary, Unexpected Passing, Hidden Causes, Life Fragility, Mortality Awareness
Marcel Proust Death, Obituary, Unexpected Passing, Hidden Causes, Life Fragility, Mortality Awareness“We don’t receive wisdom; we must discover it for ourselves after a journey that no one can take for us or spare us.” Marcel Proust
Wisdom, Journey, Self-Discovery, Individual Growth, Lifelong Learning, Personal Insight
Marcel Proust Wisdom, Journey, Self-Discovery, Individual Growth, Lifelong Learning, Personal Insight“For the possession of what we love is an even greater joy than love itself.” Marcel Proust
Love, Joy, Fulfillment, Possession, Emotional Attachment, Cherished Feelings
Marcel Proust Love, Joy, Fulfillment, Possession, Emotional Attachment, Cherished Feelings“Desiring a will was not enough. I would have needed precisely what I could not have without willpower: a will.” Marcel Proust
Will, Desire, Willpower Strength, Personal Drive, Internal Motivation, Mental Resolve
Marcel Proust Will, Desire, Willpower Strength, Personal Drive, Internal Motivation, Mental Resolve“We enjoy lovely music, beautiful paintings, a thousand intellectual delicacies, but we have no idea of their cost, to those who invented them, in sleepless nights, tears, spasmodic laughter, rashes, asthmas, epilepsies, and the fear of death, which is worse than all the rest.” Marcel Proust
Music, Paintings, Intellectual Cost, Sleepless Nights, Artistic Sacrifice, Hidden Struggles
Marcel Proust Music, Paintings, Intellectual Cost, Sleepless Nights, Artistic Sacrifice, Hidden Struggles“Other people are, as a rule, so immaterial to us that, when we have entrusted to any one of them the power to cause so much suffering or happiness to ourselves, that person seems at once to belong to a different universe, is surrounded with poetry, makes of our lives a vast expanse, quick with sensation, on which that person and ourselves are ever more or less in contact.” Marcel Proust
People, Immateriality, Emotional Power, Poetic Connection, Life Expansion, Sensational Impact
Marcel Proust People, Immateriality, Emotional Power, Poetic Connection, Life Expansion, Sensational Impact“Often it is just lack of imagination that keeps a man from suffering very much.” Marcel Proust
Imagination, Suffering, Lack, Man, Mental Escape, Emotional Pain
Marcel Proust Imagination, Suffering, Lack, Man, Mental Escape, Emotional Pain“Remembrance of things past is not necessarily the remembrance of things as they were.” Marcel Proust
Remembrance, Past, Necessarily, Were, Recalled Perspective, Memory Subjectivity
Marcel Proust Remembrance, Past, Necessarily, Were, Recalled Perspective, Memory Subjectivity“Perhaps she would not have thought of wickedness as a state so rare, so abnormal, so exotic, one which it was so refreshing to visit, had she been able to distinguish in herself, as in all her fellow-men and women, that indifference to the sufferings which they cause which, whatever names else be given it, is the one true, terrible and lasting form of cruelty.” Marcel Proust
Wickedness, Cruelty, Sufferings, State, Indifference Reality, Moral Reflection
Marcel Proust Wickedness, Cruelty, Sufferings, State, Indifference Reality, Moral Reflection“One can seldom admire what one loves.” Marcel Proust
Love, Admiration, Rare Feelings, Reflection, Emotion, Contradiction
Marcel Proust Love, Admiration, Rare Feelings, Reflection, Emotion, Contradiction“For instinct dictates our duty and the intellect supplies us with pretexts for evading it.” Marcel Proust
Instinct, Duty, Intellect, Pretexts, Moral Conflict, Logical Excuses
Marcel Proust Instinct, Duty, Intellect, Pretexts, Moral Conflict, Logical Excuses