Marcel Proust
Marcel Proust
Valentin Louis Georges Eugène Marcel Proustwas a French novelist, critic, and essayist best known for his monumental novel À la recherche du temps perdu, published in seven parts between 1913 and 1927. He is considered by many to be one of the greatest authors...
NationalityFrench
ProfessionNovelist
Date of Birth10 July 1871
CountryFrance
glowing orchids fire
I was left alone there in the company of the orchids, roses and violets, which, like people waiting beside you who do not know you, preserved a silence which their individuality as living things made all the more striking, and warmed themselves in the heat of a glowing coal fire...
art fire light
Thanks to art, instead of seeing one world only, our own, we see that world multiply itself and we have at our disposal as many worlds as there are original artists, worlds more different one from the other than those which revolve in infinite space, worlds which, centuries after the extinction of the fire from which their light first emanated, whether it is called Rembrandt or Vermeer, send us still each one its special radiance.
actions difficult stellar universe
The stellar universe is not so difficult of comprehension as the real actions of other people.
becomes moral soon unhappy
As soon as one is unhappy one becomes moral
contract disposal expand fills habit inspire passions remains time
The time which we have at our disposal every day is elastic; the passions we feel expand it, those that we inspire contract it, and habit fills up what remains
consists discovery landscapes seeking voyage
The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes but in having new eyes.
advantage desires fresh future love mind piece secured since
There can be no piece of mind in love, since the advantage one has secured is never anything but a fresh starting-point for future desires
good indeed parts seldom
It is seldom indeed that one parts on good terms, because if one were on good terms, one would not part
generally habit proportion
The regularity of a habit is generally in proportion to its absurdity.
best second
We always end up doing the thing we are second best at.
expressing healed suffering
We are healed of a suffering only by expressing it to the full.
healed suffering
We are healed of a suffering only by experiencing it in full.
man power powerful
A powerful idea communicates some of its power to the man who contradicts it
decisions destined mind state
It is always thus, impelled by a state of mind which is destined not to last, that we make our irrevocable decisions