1,085 Quotes by Marcel Proust

In most women's lives, everything, even the greatest sorrow, comes down to a question of 'I haven't got a thing to wear'.

My life had been like a painter who climbs up a road overhanging a lake that is hidden from view by a screen of rocks and trees. Through a gap he glimpses it, he has it all there in front of him, he takes up his brushes.

We are delighted when a Minister awards us a decoration, even when we have no claim to be thus honoured, but if he follows this up by awarding the same distinction to others who occupy a position similar to our own, we feel inclined to keep him, if we can, from so foolishly cheapening the mark of esteem which he has bestowed upon us.

It was fortunate that I had not already yielded to the temptation to break with Albertine; the tedium of having to rejoin her presently, when I went home, was a trifling matter compared with the anxiety that I should have felt if the separation had occurred when I still had a doubt about her and before I had had time to grow indifferent to her.

We forgive the crimes of individuals, but not their participation in a collective crime.

One wants to be understood because one wants to be loved, and one wants to be loved because one loves.

It is not only by dint of lying to others, but also of lying to ourselves, that we cease to notice that we are lying.

A woman whom we love seldom satisfies all our needs, and we deceive her with a woman we do not love.

... the reigns of the kings and queens who are portrayed as kneeling with clasped hands in the windows of churches, were stained by oppression and bloodshed.