Marcel Proust Quotes

In a separation it is the one who is not really in love who says the more tender things.

Habit is a second nature which prevents us from knowing the first, of which it has neither the cruelties nor the enchantments.

Happiness serves hardly any other purpose than to make unhappiness possible.

Our intonations contain our philosophy of life, what each of us is constantly telling himself about things.

One must never miss an opportunity of quoting things by others which are always more interesting than those one thinks up oneself.

We don’t receive wisdom; we must discover it for ourselves after a journey that no one can take for us or spare us.

Illness is the doctor to whom we pay most heed; to kindness, to knowledge, we make promise only; pain we obey.

There is no man, however wise, who has not at some period of his youth said things, or lived in a way the consciousness of which is so unpleasant to him in later life that he would gladly, if he could, expunge it from his memory.

Let us be grateful to people who make us happy, they are the charming gardeners who make our souls blossom.

The voyage of discovery is not in seeking new landscapes but in having new eyes.

We love only what we do not wholly possess.

Everything great in the world comes from neurotics. They alone have founded our religions and composed our masterpieces.

We become moral when we are unhappy.

Let us leave pretty women to men devoid of imagination.

When you work to please others you can’t succeed, but the things you do to satisfy yourself stand a chance of catching someone’s interest.

If we are to make reality endurable, we must all nourish a fantasy or two.

Happiness is beneficial for the body, but it is grief that develops the powers of the mind.