Masterpieces are no more than the shipwrecked flotsam of great minds.
Marcel Proust
Masterpieces, Flotsam, Minds, Great, Artistic Survival, Creative Chaos
Marcel Proust’s Quotes On Topics
Human Irony | Obituary | Emotional Conflict | Dual Suffering | Present Impact | Short Awakens | Romantic Joy | Personal Traits | Aristocracy | Emotional Balance | Happy | Harmonized Colors | Imagery | Sudden Kiss | Optical Instrument | Roles | Childhood Wonder | Reflective Connection | Truth Contrast | Door | More
More Marcel Proust Quotes
“A book is like a large cemetery upon whose tombs one can no longer read the effaced names. On the other hand, sometimes one remembers well the name, without knowing if anything of the being, whose name it was, survives in these pages.” Marcel Proust
Book, Cemetery, Effaced Names, Remembered Identity, Forgotten Stories, Literary Immortality
Marcel Proust Book, Cemetery, Effaced Names, Remembered Identity, Forgotten Stories, Literary Immortality“The lives that you admire, the attitudes that seem noble to you, have not been shaped by a paterfamilias or a schoolmaster, they have sprung from very different beginnings, having been influenced by evil or commonplace that prevailed round them. They represent a struggle and a victory.” Marcel Proust
Lives, Noble, Different Beginnings, Struggle Victory, Admired Influences, Personal Triumph
Marcel Proust Lives, Noble, Different Beginnings, Struggle Victory, Admired Influences, Personal Triumph“We strive all the time to give our life its form, but we do so by copying willy-nilly, like a drawing, the features of the person that we are and not of the person we should like to be.” Marcel Proust
Life, Form, Personal Features, Identity Struggle, Self-Perception, Authentic Growth
Marcel Proust Life, Form, Personal Features, Identity Struggle, Self-Perception, Authentic Growth“And it is perhaps one of the causes of our perpetual disappointments in love, this perpetual displacement whereby, in response to our expectation of the ideal person whom we love, each meeting provides us with a person in flesh and blood who yet contains so little trace of our dream.” Marcel Proust
Love, Disappointments, Ideal Person, Flesh Blood, Unrealized Dreams, Romantic Displacement
Marcel Proust Love, Disappointments, Ideal Person, Flesh Blood, Unrealized Dreams, Romantic Displacement“And yet one did not find in the speech of Bergotte a certain luminosity which in his books, as in those of some other writers, often modified in the written phrase the appearance of its words. This was doubtless because that light issues from so profound a depth that its rays do not penetrate to our spoken words in the hours in which, thrown open to others by the act of conversation, we are to a certain extent closed against ourselves.” Marcel Proust
Luminosity, Speech, Profound Depth, Conversational Barrier, Literary Light, Spoken Words
Marcel Proust Luminosity, Speech, Profound Depth, Conversational Barrier, Literary Light, Spoken Words“Love is not vain because it is frustrated, but because it is fulfilled. The people we love turn to ashes when we possess them.” Marcel Proust
Love, Vain, Frustrated, Fulfilled, Emotional Fragility, Possession’s Loss
Marcel Proust Love, Vain, Frustrated, Fulfilled, Emotional Fragility, Possession’s Loss“Happiness is salutary for the body but sorrow develops the powers of the spirit.” Marcel Proust
Happiness, Sorrow, Body Spirit, Emotional Growth, Positive Sadness, Inner Strength
Marcel Proust Happiness, Sorrow, Body Spirit, Emotional Growth, Positive Sadness, Inner Strength“Our words are, as a general rule, filled by the people to whom we address them with a meaning which those people derive from their own substance, a meaning widely different from that which we had put into the same words when we uttered them.” Marcel Proust
Words Meaning, Subjective Perception, Communication Gap, Shared Interpretation, Emotional Understanding, Miscommunication
Marcel Proust Words Meaning, Subjective Perception, Communication Gap, Shared Interpretation, Emotional Understanding, Miscommunication“All the great writers are like that: the beauty of their sentences, like the beauty of a woman one has not yet met, is unforeseeable.” Marcel Proust
Writers, Sentences, Beauty, Woman, Unseen Elegance, Unpredictable Art
Marcel Proust Writers, Sentences, Beauty, Woman, Unseen Elegance, Unpredictable Art“Every woman feels that the greater her power over a man, the more impossible it is to leave him except by sudden flight: a fugitive precisely because a queen.” Marcel Proust
Power, Woman, Sudden Flight, Queenly Strength, Emotional Struggles, Relationship Dynamics
Marcel Proust Power, Woman, Sudden Flight, Queenly Strength, Emotional Struggles, Relationship Dynamics“Our memory is like a shop in the window of which is exposed now one, now another photograph of the same person. And as a rule the most recent exhibit remains for some time the only one to be seen.” Marcel Proust
Memory, Shop, Recent Exhibit, Changing Images, Past Reflection, Photographic Metaphor
Marcel Proust Memory, Shop, Recent Exhibit, Changing Images, Past Reflection, Photographic Metaphor“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“La possession de ce qu’on aime est une joie plus grande encore que l’amour. Possessing what one loves is an even greater joy than love itself.” Marcel Proust
Possessing, Joy, Love Greater, True Happiness, Emotional Fulfillment, Cherished Affection
Marcel Proust Possessing, Joy, Love Greater, True Happiness, Emotional Fulfillment, Cherished Affection“Conversation, which is friendship’s mode of expression, is a superficial digression which gives us nothing worth acquiring. We may talk for a lifetime without doing more than indefinitely repeat the vacuity of a minute.” Marcel Proust
Conversation, Friendship, Expression Mode, Superficial Talk, Empty Words, Social Insight
Marcel Proust Conversation, Friendship, Expression Mode, Superficial Talk, Empty Words, Social Insight“But sometimes illumination comes to our rescue at the very moment when all seems lost; we have knocked at every door and they open on nothing until, at last, we stumble unconsciously against the only one through which we can enter the kingdom we have sought in vain a hundred years – and it opens.” Marcel Proust
Illumination, Rescue, Unconscious Discovery, Kingdom Entry, Last Hope, Hidden Opportunity
Marcel Proust Illumination, Rescue, Unconscious Discovery, Kingdom Entry, Last Hope, Hidden Opportunity“He had so long since ceased to direct his life toward any ideal goal, and had confined himself to the pursuit of quotidian satisfactions, that he had come to believe, though without ever formally stating his belief even to himself that he would remain all his life in that condition, which only death could alter.” Marcel Proust
Satisfaction, Quotidian Life, Ideal Goal, Resigned Belief, Unchanging Condition, Mortal Shift
Marcel Proust Satisfaction, Quotidian Life, Ideal Goal, Resigned Belief, Unchanging Condition, Mortal Shift“One must never miss an opportunity of quoting things by others which are always more interesting than those one thinks up oneself.” Marcel Proust
Quoting Others, Intellectual Borrowing, Wisdom Sharing, Self Humility, Thought Influence, Communication Enhancement
Marcel Proust Quoting Others, Intellectual Borrowing, Wisdom Sharing, Self Humility, Thought Influence, Communication Enhancement“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
Pleasures, Photographs, Inner Darkroom, Love Absence, Memory Development, Forbidden Reflections
Marcel Proust Pleasures, Photographs, Inner Darkroom, Love Absence, Memory Development, Forbidden Reflections