The whole art of living is to use the people who make us suffer simply as steps enabling us to obtain access to their divine form and thus joyfully to people our lives with divinities.
Marcel Proust
Art, Living, Suffering Steps, Divine Form, Joyful Connections, Transcendent Growth
Marcel Proust’s Quotes On Topics
Wasn’t | Imperfections | Personal Reserve | Majesty | Interpretation | Mental Connection | Exclusive Circles | Position | Miracle | Emotional Clarity | Resistance | Unknown Life | Uncharted Path | Relational Success | Indignant | Shadows | Fashion Dilemmas | Psychological Complexity | Unhappiness | Sleep Awareness | More
More Marcel Proust Quotes
“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“Because of the infinite quality of love, or its egotism, the intellectual and spiritual physiognomy of the people we love are the least objectively defined for us. We are constantly retouching them to suit our desires and our fears; we do not separate them from us; they are but an immense and vague place where our affections exteriorize themselves.” Marcel Proust
Love, Perception, Subjectivity, Affection, Projection, Emotional Distortion
Marcel Proust Love, Perception, Subjectivity, Affection, Projection, Emotional Distortion“He imagined himself lying there, unable to sleep, thinking of his mother, separated from her by the unresponsive blankets tucked too tightly round him, feeling the ceaseless thumping of his heart in the silence of the night, the irrevocability of absence, the rigid stillness of repose, the agony of solitude and sleeplessness. If the room was a prison, the bed was a tomb.” Marcel Proust
Sleep Agony, Solitude, Emotional Isolation, Night Silence, Grief Presence, Mental Torture
Marcel Proust Sleep Agony, Solitude, Emotional Isolation, Night Silence, Grief Presence, Mental Torture“A man of letters, merely by reading a phrase, can estimate exactly the literary merit of its author.” Marcel Proust
Letters, Phrase, Literary Merit, Author Estimate, Reading Insight, Scholarly Judgment
Marcel Proust Letters, Phrase, Literary Merit, Author Estimate, Reading Insight, Scholarly Judgment“The only possible paradises are those we have lost.” Marcel Proust
Paradise, Lost Worlds, Nostalgia, Irrecoverable Beauty, Longing Reflection, Memory Ideal
Marcel Proust Paradise, Lost Worlds, Nostalgia, Irrecoverable Beauty, Longing Reflection, Memory Ideal“We dream much of a paradise, or rather of a number of successive paradises, but each of them is, long before we die, a paradise lost, in which we should feel ourselves lost too.” Marcel Proust
Paradise, Successive, Dream Reflection, Lost States, Mortal Vision, Nostalgic Longing
Marcel Proust Paradise, Successive, Dream Reflection, Lost States, Mortal Vision, Nostalgic Longing“Thus I had already reached the conclusion that we are in no wise free in the presence of a work of art, that we do not create it as we please but that it pre-exists in us and we are compelled as though it were a law of nature to discover it because it is at once hidden from us and necessary.” Marcel Proust
Art, Creation, Law Of Nature, Artistic Discovery, Compulsion, Philosophy
Marcel Proust Art, Creation, Law Of Nature, Artistic Discovery, Compulsion, Philosophy“I would fall asleep again, and thereafter would reawaken for short snatches only, just long enough to hear the regular creaking of the wainscot, or to open my eyes to stare at the shifting kaleidoscope of the darkness, to savour, in a momentary glimmer of consciousness, the sleep which lay heavy upon the furniture, the room, that whole of which I formed no more than a small part and whose insensibility I should very soon return to share.” Marcel Proust
Short Awakens, Emotional Sensory, Sleep Awareness, Darkness, Memory Impressions, Transient Moments
Marcel Proust Short Awakens, Emotional Sensory, Sleep Awareness, Darkness, Memory Impressions, Transient Moments“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 Bird, Solitude, Long Note, Unanimous Silence, Eternal Moment, Nature Symphony“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“Dear Friend: I have nearly died three times since morning.” Marcel Proust
Friend, Died, Three, Morning, Humorous Exaggeration, Dramatic Day
Marcel Proust Friend, Died, Three, Morning, Humorous Exaggeration, Dramatic Day“May my life someday be so limpid that the Muses will deign to mirror themselves in it and that we can see the reflections of their smiles and their dances skimming across its surface.” Marcel Proust
Life, Muses, Limpid Reflection, Artistic Inspiration, Beauty, Imagination
Marcel Proust Life, Muses, Limpid Reflection, Artistic Inspiration, Beauty, Imagination“How else learn the real, if not by inventing what might lie outside it?” Marcel Proust
Learn, Real, Inventing, Outside, Imaginative Thinking, Perceived Reality
Marcel Proust Learn, Real, Inventing, Outside, Imaginative Thinking, Perceived Reality“Will it ultimately reach the clear surface of my consciousness, this memory, this old, dead moment which the magnetism of an identical moment has travelled so far to importune, to disturb, to raise up out of the very depths of my being? I cannot tell. Now that I feel nothing, it has stopped, has perhaps gone down again into its darkness, from which who can say whether it will ever rise?” Marcel Proust
Memory, Consciousness, Depth, Moment, Emotional Magnetism, Lost Feelings
Marcel Proust Memory, Consciousness, Depth, Moment, Emotional Magnetism, Lost Feelings“Desire makes everything blossom.” Marcel Proust
Desire, Blossom, Emotional Growth, Inner Drive, Romantic Flourish, Creative Passion
Marcel Proust Desire, Blossom, Emotional Growth, Inner Drive, Romantic Flourish, Creative Passion“I felt even disappointed when he resumed the thread of his narrative.” Marcel Proust
Disappointment, Narrative Thread, Storytelling, Emotional Gap, Personal Letdown, Listening Experience
Marcel Proust Disappointment, Narrative Thread, Storytelling, Emotional Gap, Personal Letdown, Listening Experience“Even though our lives wander, our memories remain in one place.” Marcel Proust
Lives, Memories, Wandering Path, Unchanging Past, Nostalgic Anchor, Temporal Stability
Marcel Proust Lives, Memories, Wandering Path, Unchanging Past, Nostalgic Anchor, Temporal Stability“Neurosis has an absolute genius for malingering. There is no illness which it cannot counterfeit perfectly. If it is capable of deceiving the doctor, how should it fail to deceive the patient.” Marcel Proust
Neurosis, Illness, Deception, Malingering, Emotional Struggles, Psychological Illusion
Marcel Proust Neurosis, Illness, Deception, Malingering, Emotional Struggles, Psychological Illusion“A well-read man will yawn with boredom when one speaks to him of a new “good book,” as he imagines a sort of composite of all the good books he has read, whereas a good book is something special, unforeseeable, made up not of the sum of all previous masterpieces but of something which the most thorough assimilation of every one of them would not enable him to discover, since it exists not in their sum but beyond it.” Marcel Proust
Books, Reading, Masterpieces, Boredom, Literary Value, Unique Insights
Marcel Proust Books, Reading, Masterpieces, Boredom, Literary Value, Unique Insights