Marcel Proust

About Marcel Proust

Notable quotes

“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.”
— Preface (1910) to The Bible of Amiens by John Ruskin, translated by Proust (1904); from Marcel Proust: On Reading Ruskin, trans. Jean Autret and Philip J. Wolfe (Yale University Press, 1987, , p. 53
“Autrefois on rêvait de posséder le cœur de la femme dont on était amoureux; plus tard sentir qu’on possède le cœur d’une femme peut suffire à vous en rendre amoureux.”
— In his younger days a man dreams of possessing the heart of the woman whom he loves; later, the feeling that he possesses the heart of a woman may be enough to make him fall in love with her.
“Les traits de notre visage ne sont guère que des gestes devenus, par l'habitude, définitifs.”
— The features of our face are hardly more than gestures become, by habit, permanent.
“La maladie est le plus écouté des médecins: à la bonté, au savoir on ne fait que promettre; on obéit à la souffrance.”
— Illness is the doctor to whom we pay most heed; to kindness, to knowledge, we make promises only; pain we obey.
“Une femme est d'une plus grande utilité pour notre vie si elle y est, au lieu d'un élément de bonheur, un instrument de chagrin, et il n'y en a pas une seule dont la possession soit aussi précieuse que celle des vérités qu'elle nous découvre en nous faisant souffrir.”
— A woman is of greater service to our life if she is in it, instead of being an element of happiness, an instrument of sorrow, and there is not a woman in the world the possession of whom is as precious as that of the truths which she reveals to us by causing us to suffer.
“Quant au bonheur, il n’a presque qu’une seule utilité, rendre le malheur possible.”
— Happiness serves hardly any other purpose than to make unhappiness possible.

Quotes via Wikiquote (CC BY-SA), each with its original source.