We must love men more than things, and I admire and weep more for the soldiers than for the churches which were only the recording of an heroic gesture which today is reenacted at every moment.
Marcel Proust
Men, Love, Soldiers Churches, Heroic Gesture, Emotional Priority, Value Reflection
Marcel Proust’s Quotes On Topics
Self-Evaluation | Learning Solitude | Adversaries | Contrasting Nature | Unacknowledged Hope | Mortal Shift | Routine Absurdity | Literary Joy | Emotional Torment | Emotional Loop | Observing Others | Philosophy | Self Unknown | Former Agitation | Humanist | Other Eyes | Parting Emotions | Thought Exercise | Imperishable | Torrent | More
More Marcel Proust Quotes
“In reality, every reader is, while reading, the reader of his own self.” Marcel Proust
Reader, Reality, Self, Reading, Personal Reflection, Literature’s Power
Marcel Proust Reader, Reality, Self, Reading, Personal Reflection, Literature’s Power“For everyone who, having no artistic sense-that is to say, no submission to subjective reality-may have the knack of reasoning about art till doomsday, especially if he be, in addition, a diplomat or financier in contact with the ‘realities’ of the present day, is only too ready to believe literature is an intellectual game which is destined to gradually be abandoned as time goes on.” Marcel Proust
Art, Subjective Reality, Literature, Diplomats, Philosophy, Intellectual Game
Marcel Proust Art, Subjective Reality, Literature, Diplomats, Philosophy, Intellectual Game“There are perhaps no days of our childhood we lived so fully as those we spent with a favorite book.” Marcel Proust
Childhood, Books, Favorite Days, Literary Joy, Nostalgic Reading, Immersive Worlds
Marcel Proust Childhood, Books, Favorite Days, Literary Joy, Nostalgic Reading, Immersive Worlds“Desire makes everything blossom; possession makes everything wither and fade.” Marcel Proust
Desire, Possession, Blossom And Fade, Emotional Cycle, Reflection, Love
Marcel Proust Desire, Possession, Blossom And Fade, Emotional Cycle, Reflection, Love“The facts of life do not penetrate to the sphere in which our beliefs are cherished; they did not engender those beliefs, and they are powerless to destroy them; they can inflict on them continual blows of contradiction and disproof without weakening them; and an avalanche of miseries and maladies succeeding one another without interruption in the bosom of a family will not make it lose faith in either the clemency of its God or the capacity of its physician.” Marcel Proust
Facts, Life, Beliefs, Faith, Unshaken Conviction, Emotional Fortitude
Marcel Proust Facts, Life, Beliefs, Faith, Unshaken Conviction, Emotional Fortitude“I did not wait to hear the end of my father’s story, for I had been with him myself after mass when we had met M. Legrandin; instead, I went downstairs to the kitchen to ask about the menu for our dinner, which was of fresh interest to me daily, like the news in a paper, and excited me as might the programme of a coming festivity.” Marcel Proust
Father, Story, Dinner Menu, Daily Interest, Festive Anticipation, Familial Moments
Marcel Proust Father, Story, Dinner Menu, Daily Interest, Festive Anticipation, Familial Moments“It has been said that beauty is a promise of happiness. Conversely, the possibility of pleasure can be a beginning of beauty.” Marcel Proust
Beauty, Happiness, Pleasure Possibility, Promised Joy, Aesthetic Appeal, Emotional Connection
Marcel Proust Beauty, Happiness, Pleasure Possibility, Promised Joy, Aesthetic Appeal, Emotional Connection“The only true voyage would be not to travel through a hundred different lands, but to see the same land through a hundred different pairs of eyes.” Marcel Proust
Voyage, Perspectives, New Eyes, Inner Travel, Perception Shift, Transformative Vision
Marcel Proust Voyage, Perspectives, New Eyes, Inner Travel, Perception Shift, Transformative Vision“Nature hardly seems capable of giving us any but quite short illnesses. But medicine has annexed to itself the art of prolonging them.” Marcel Proust
Nature, Illness, Short Duration, Prolonged Medicine, Health Paradox, Human Intervention
Marcel Proust Nature, Illness, Short Duration, Prolonged Medicine, Health Paradox, Human Intervention“We fall in love for a smile, a look, a shoulder. That is enough; then, in the long hours of hope or sorrow, we fabricate a person, we compose a character.” Marcel Proust
Love, Smile, Fabricated Persona, Emotional Creation, Fleeting Affections, Romantic Ideals
Marcel Proust Love, Smile, Fabricated Persona, Emotional Creation, Fleeting Affections, Romantic Ideals“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“Knowledge of the thing cannot impede it; but at least we have the things we discover, if not in our hands, at least in thought, and there they are at your disposal, which inspires us to the illusory hope of enjoying a kind of dominion over them.” Marcel Proust
Knowledge, Discovery, Illusory Dominion, Thought Power, Mental Possession, Hope’s Reach
Marcel Proust Knowledge, Discovery, Illusory Dominion, Thought Power, Mental Possession, Hope’s Reach“It is in moments of illness that we are compelled to recognize that we live not alone but chained to a creature of a different kingdom, whole worlds apart, who has no knowledge of us and by whom it is impossible to make ourselves understood: our body.” Marcel Proust
Illness, Body, Different Kingdom, Physical Chains, Self-Recognition, Mental Divide
Marcel Proust Illness, Body, Different Kingdom, Physical Chains, Self-Recognition, Mental Divide“There is in this world in which everything wears out, everything perishes, one thing that crumbles into dust, that destroys itself still more completely, leaving behind still fewer traces of itself than Beauty: namely Grief.” Marcel Proust
Beauty, Grief, Emotional Decay, Loss Reflection, Perishable Life, Poetic Reflection
Marcel Proust Beauty, Grief, Emotional Decay, Loss Reflection, Perishable Life, Poetic Reflection“We do not receive wisdom, we must discover it for ourselves, after a journey through the wilderness which no one else can make for us, which no one can spare us, for our wisdom is the point of view from which we come at last to regard the world.” Marcel Proust
Wisdom, Journey, Discover Wilderness, Individual Struggle, Personal Insight, World Perspective
Marcel Proust Wisdom, Journey, Discover Wilderness, Individual Struggle, Personal Insight, World Perspective“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
Fashion, Society, Opinions, Conformity, Literary Circles, Social Influence
Marcel Proust Fashion, Society, Opinions, Conformity, Literary Circles, Social Influence“Real life, life finally uncovered and clarified, the only life in consequence lived to the full, is literature. Life in this sense dwells within all ordinary people as much as the artist. But they do not see it because they are not trying to shed light on it.” Marcel Proust
Literature, Real Life, Clarified Existence, Ordinary People, Light Reflection, Artistic Life
Marcel Proust Literature, Real Life, Clarified Existence, Ordinary People, Light Reflection, Artistic Life“In the V-shaped opening of her crape bodice Mlle. Vinteuil felt the sting of her friend’s sudden kiss.” Marcel Proust
Crape Bodice, Sudden Kiss, Emotional Surge, Romantic Gesture, Sensory Memory, Desire Awakening
Marcel Proust Crape Bodice, Sudden Kiss, Emotional Surge, Romantic Gesture, Sensory Memory, Desire Awakening“As a rule it is with our being reduced to a minimum that we live; most of our faculties lie dormant because they can rely upon Habit, which knows what there is to be done and has no need of their services. But on this morning of travel, the interruption of the routine of my existence, the unfamiliar place and time, had made their presence indispensable.” Marcel Proust
Habit, Travel, Routine, Life, Unfamiliar Moments, Awareness Renewal
Marcel Proust Habit, Travel, Routine, Life, Unfamiliar Moments, Awareness Renewal“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