Quartering the topmost branches of one of the tall trees, an invisible bird was striving to make the day seem shorter, exploring with a long-drawn note the solitude that pressed it on every side, but it received at once so unanimous an answer, so powerful a repercussion of silence and of immobility, that one felt it had arrested for all eternity the moment which it had been trying to make pass more quickly.
Marcel Proust
Bird, Solitude, Long Note, Unanimous Silence, Eternal Moment, Nature Symphony
Marcel Proust’s Quotes On Topics
Literary Art | Spoken Words | Chemical Analogy | Recalled Perspective | Perspective Shift | Emerge Fellows | Reflective Insight | Emotional Projection | Pursuit Pleasure | Moonlight | Consolation | Irony | Frozen Movements | Squandered Lies | Emotional Reference | External Belongings | Inner Journey | Creative Passion | Double Impact | Mistakes | More
More Marcel Proust Quotes
“Those whose suffering is due to love are, as we say of certain invalids, their own physicians.” Marcel Proust
Suffering, Love, Self Healing, Emotional Pain, Romantic Wisdom, Personal Growth
Marcel Proust Suffering, Love, Self Healing, Emotional Pain, Romantic Wisdom, Personal Growth“Our desires cut across one another, and in this confused existence it is rare for happiness to coincide with the desire that clamoured for it.” Marcel Proust
Desires, Happiness, Existence, Rare, Confused Longing, Misaligned Joy
Marcel Proust Desires, Happiness, Existence, Rare, Confused Longing, Misaligned Joy“To a great extent, suffering is a sort of need felt by the organism to make itself familiar with a new state, which makes it uneasy, to adapt its sensibility to that state.” Marcel Proust
Suffering, Need, Organism, State, Emotional Adjustment, Sensory Adaptation
Marcel Proust Suffering, Need, Organism, State, Emotional Adjustment, Sensory Adaptation“In reality, every reader, while he is reading, is the reader of his own self. The writer’s work is merely a kind of optical instrument, which he offers to the reader to permit him to discern what, without the book, he would perhaps never have seen in himself. The reader’s recognition in his own self of what the book says is the proof of its truth.” Marcel Proust
Reader Reflection, Self Discovery, Truth Recognition, Authorial Perception, Inner Insights, Literary Connection
Marcel Proust Reader Reflection, Self Discovery, Truth Recognition, Authorial Perception, Inner Insights, Literary Connection“Discovery consists not in seeking new lands, but in seeing with new eyes.” Marcel Proust
Discovery, Eyes, New Lands, Seeing Differently, Perception Shift, Exploration Insight
Marcel Proust Discovery, Eyes, New Lands, Seeing Differently, Perception Shift, Exploration Insight“The most powerful soporific is sleep itself.” Marcel Proust
Sleep, Rest, Relaxation, Effectiveness, Tiredness, Natural Remedies
Marcel Proust Sleep, Rest, Relaxation, Effectiveness, Tiredness, Natural Remedies“The truth is that every morning war is declared afresh. And the men who wish to continue it are as guilty as the men who began it, more guilty perhaps, for the latter perhaps did not foresee all its horrors.” Marcel Proust
Truth, War, Declared Daily, Continued Guilt, War Horrors, Moral Responsibility
Marcel Proust Truth, War, Declared Daily, Continued Guilt, War Horrors, Moral Responsibility“My dears, laugh at me if you like; it is not conventionally beautiful, but there is something in its quaint old face which pleases me. If it could play the piano, I am sure it would really play.” Marcel Proust
Quaint Face, Piano, Unconventional Beauty, Personal Pleasures, Sentimental Value, Unique Appeal
Marcel Proust Quaint Face, Piano, Unconventional Beauty, Personal Pleasures, Sentimental Value, Unique Appeal“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“We were resigned to suffering, thinking that we loved outside ourselves, and we perceive that our love is a function of our sorrow, that our love perhaps is our sorrow...” Marcel Proust
Suffering, Love, Emotional Sorrow, Love Function, Resigned Perception, Inner Pain
Marcel Proust Suffering, Love, Emotional Sorrow, Love Function, Resigned Perception, Inner Pain“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“To think that I have wasted years of my life, that I have longed for death, that the greatest love that I have ever known has been for a woman who did not please me, who was not in my style!” Marcel Proust
Wasted, Years, Death, Love, Emotional Regret, Misaligned Affection
Marcel Proust Wasted, Years, Death, Love, Emotional Regret, Misaligned Affection“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“A picture’s beauty does not depend on the things portrayed in it.” Marcel Proust
Picture, Beauty, Independent Art, Subjective Appeal, Artistic Value, Visual Interpretation
Marcel Proust Picture, Beauty, Independent Art, Subjective Appeal, Artistic Value, Visual Interpretation“It’s a funny thing, now; I very often think of my poor wife, but I cannot think of her very much at any one time.” “Often, but a little at a time, like poor old Swann,” became one of my grandfather’s favourite phrases, which he would apply to all kinds of things.” Marcel Proust
Funny, Wife, Time, Grandfather, Gradual Thoughts, Incremental Memory
Marcel Proust Funny, Wife, Time, Grandfather, Gradual Thoughts, Incremental Memory“We fear more than the loss of anything else the disappearance of possessions that have remained outside ourselves, because our hearts have not taken possession of them.” Marcel Proust
Fear, Possessions, Emotional Loss, Heart Connection, External Belongings, Attachment Pain
Marcel Proust Fear, Possessions, Emotional Loss, Heart Connection, External Belongings, Attachment Pain“We may have revolved every possible idea in our minds, and yet the truth has never occurred to us, and it is from without, when we are least expecting it, that it gives us its cruel stab and wounds us forever.” Marcel Proust
Truth, Minds, Cruel Stab, Wounds Forever, Unexpected Reality, Emotional Pain
Marcel Proust Truth, Minds, Cruel Stab, Wounds Forever, Unexpected Reality, Emotional Pain“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“The world was not created once and for all time for each of us individually. There are added to it in the course of our life things of which we have never had any suspicion.” Marcel Proust
Creation, Discovery, Individual Experience, World View, Life Changes, Philosophy
Marcel Proust Creation, Discovery, Individual Experience, World View, Life Changes, Philosophy“Our belief that a person takes part in an unknown life which his or her love would allow us to enter is, of all that love demands in order to come into being, what it prizes the most, and what makes it care little for the rest.” Marcel Proust
Love, Unknown Life, Romantic Mystery, Emotional Fulfillment, Relationship Depth, Prioritized Demands
Marcel Proust Love, Unknown Life, Romantic Mystery, Emotional Fulfillment, Relationship Depth, Prioritized Demands