1,085 Quotes by Marcel Proust

Whenever she saw in others an advantage, however trivial, which she herself lacked, she would persuade herself that it was no advantage at all, but a drawback, and would pity so as not to have to envy them.

So difficult is it for us to know, with the dead as with the living, whether a thing would cause them joy or sorrow!

She was not yet dead. But I was already alone.

A real person, profoundly as we may sympathize with him, is in a great measure perceptible only through our senses, that is to say, remains opaque, presents a dead weight which our sensibilities have not the strength to lift. If some misfortune comes to him, it is only in one small section of the complete idea we have of him that we are capable of feeling any emotion; indeed it is only in one small section of the complete idea he has of himself that he is capable of feeling any emotion either.

... the cattleyas especially (these being, with chrysanthemums, her favourite flowers), because they had the supreme merit of not looking in the least like other flowers, but of being made, apparently, out of scraps of silk or satin.

Gardeners produce flowers that are delicious dreams, and others too that are like nightmares.

M. de Charlus made no reply and looked as if he had not heard, which was one of his favourite forms of rudeness.

... it was with an unusual intensity of pleasure, a pleasure destined to have a lasting effect upon his character and conduct...

The glutton usually realizes that gout is ever ready to pounce, and that alcohol is bad for him. But possible disaster weighs light in the scale against certain pleasure.