Quotes from Marcel Proust

There must be something inaccessible in what we love, something to pursue; we love only what we do not possess, and soon I began once more to realize that I did not possess Albertine.

she believed came from her admirer but which was due in effect to the utter impossibility of finding pleasure when one spends all one's time looking for it.

I do not ask to live to a hundred," my aunt would say, for she preferred to have no definite limit fixed to the number of her days.

Belki de, diyordum kendi kendime, M. de Charlus'ün sap?kl???n?n ona kad?nca bir hassasiyet, bir zihinsel incelik kazand?rmas? gibi, Albertine'in de iyi yürekli, samimi tav?rlar?, onunla bir erkek arkada?la kurulan vefal? ve k?s?tlamas?z dostlu?u ya??yormu?um yan?lg?s?n? yaratan davran??lar?, gelecekteki ac?lar?m?n sebebi olan sap?kl???ndan kaynaklan?yordu.

But already there is the same fault, that paradox of stringing together fine-sounding words and only afterwards troubling about what they mean.

Yet as soon as he acquired his social position, he ceased to take advantage of it. It was not merely because once he was an official guest he no longer experienced any pleasure at being invited, but also, because of the two vices which had competed so long within him, the least natural, snobbery, gave way to the other, more natural one, since it marked a return, however devious, to nature.

Et chaque fois la lâcheté qui nous détourne de toute tâche difficile, de toute oeuvre importante, m'a conseillé de laisser cela, de boire mon thé en pensant simplement à mes ennuis d'aujourd'hui, à mes désirs de demain qui se laissent remâcher sans peine.

To be with the people one loves, to speak to them, not to speak to them, it is all the same.

By an inverse gymnastic, I who had made a mental effort to add to Rachel all that Saint-Loup had added to her of himself, I attempted to subtract the support of my heart and mind from the composition of Albertine and to picture her to myself as she must appear to Saint-Loup, as Rachel had appeared to me. Those differences, even though we were to observe them ourselves, what importance would we attach to them

I never ceased to believe that they corresponded to a reality independent of myself, and they made me conscious of as glorious a hope as could have been cherished by a Christian in the primitive age of faith, on the eve of his entry into Paradise.

She would never think of shutting a door and, on the other hand, would no more hesitate to enter a room if the door stood open than would a dog or a cat.

Now the memories of love are no exception to the general laws of memory, which in turn are governed by the still more general laws of Habit.

Persuadé que mes pensées eussent paru pure ineptie à cet esprit parfait, j'avais tellement fait table rase de toutes, que quand par hasard il m'arriva d'en rencontrer, dans tel livres, une que j'avais déjà eue moi-même, mon cœur se gonflait comme si un Dieu dans sa bonté me l'avait rendue, l'avait déclarée légitime et belle.

He was one of those susceptible, highly-strung persons who cannot bear to have made a blunder which, though they do not admit it to themselves, is enough to spoil their whole day.

Un ser real, por profundamente que simpaticemos con él, le percibimos en gran parte por medio de nuestros sentidos, es decir, sigue opaco para nosotros y ofrece un peso muerto que nuestra sensibilidad no es capaz de levantar. Si le sucede una desgracia, no podemos sentirla más que en una parte mínima de la noción total que de él tenemos, ni tampoco podrá él sentirlo más que en una parte de la noción total que de sí tenga.

pococurantism,

Sorrow is a fruit, God does not cause it to grow On a branch that is still too feeble to bear it.

the best way to gain time is to change one's place of residence. My

Beneath his fine skin the bold construction, the feudal architecture were apparent. His head made one think of those old dungeon keeps on which the disused battlements are still to be seen, although inside they have been converted into libraries.

In the course of a campaign, if it is at all long, you will see one belligerent profiting by the lessons furnished him by the successes and mistakes, perfecting the methods of the other, who will improve on him in turn. But all that is a thing of the past. With the terrible advance of artillery, the wars of the future, if there are to be any more wars, will be so short that, before we have had time to think of putting our lessons into practice, peace will have been signed.

The words Gisèle's eyes promised would be spoken to me as soon as Albertine left us alone together were not to be uttered,

our social personality is created by the thoughts of other people.

Genius lies in reflective power, and not in the intrinsic quality of the scene reflected.

Of course things have no power in themselves and since it is we who impart it to them, some middle-class school-boy might at this moment be standing in front of the mansion in the Avenue du Bois and feeling as I did formerly about the earlier one. And this because he would still be at the age of faith which I had left far behind;