Quotes from Gabriel Marcel

There is no privileged state which allows us to transcend time; and this was where Proust made his great mistake. A state such as he describes has only the value of a foretaste. This notion of a foretaste is, I feel, likely to play a more and more central part in my thinking.

It is strange—and yet so clear—that I shall only continue to believe if I continue to deserve my faith. Amazing interdependence between believing and desert!

The interdependence of spiritual destinies, the plan of salvation; for me, that is the sublime and unique feature of Catholicism. I was just thinking a moment ago that the spectator-attitude corresponds to a form of lust; and more than that, it corresponds to the act by which the subject appropriates the world for himself. And I now perceive the deep truth of Bérulle's theocentrism. We are here to serve; yes, the idea of service, in every sense, must be thoroughly examined.

Philosophy is experience transmitted into thought.

Time is like a well whose shaft goes down to death - to my death - to my perdition. The gulf of time: how I shudder to look down on time! My death is at its bottom and its dank breath mounts up and chills me.

Re?i: ''Volim te'' zna?i isto što i re?i: ''Ti ne?eš umrijeti''.

Je ne peux pas être vraiment en paix avec moi-même si je ne suis pas en paix avec mes frères.

Il est de toute nécessité que je perde conscience de la réalité individuelle de l'être que je puis être amené à supprimer.

You know you have loved someone when you have glimpsed in them that which is too beautiful to die.

A mystery is a problem that encroaches upon itself because the questioner becomes the object of the question. Getting to Mars is a problem. Falling in love is a mystery.

But however measurable, there is much more life in music than mathematics or logic ever dreamed of.

Contemplation and wisdom are highest achievements and man is not totally at home with them.

Contemporary thinkers would say that man is continuously transcending himself.

On a grassroots level we say that man can touch more than he can grasp.

The wise man knows how to run his life so that contemplation is possible.