1,085 Quotes by Marcel Proust

Human altruism which is not egoism, is sterile.

We scornfully decline, because of one whom we love and who will some day be of so little account, to see another who is of no account to-day, with whom we shall be in love to-morrow, with whom we might, perhaps, had we consented to see her now, have fallen in love a little earlier and who would thus have put a term to our present sufferings, bringing others, it is true, in their place.

Nine tenths of the ills from which intelligent people suffer spring from their intellect.

Existence is of little interest save on days when the dust of realities is mingled with magic sand.

Your soul is a dark forest. But the trees are of a particular species, they are genealogical trees.

Let a prize lower my position, if it causes me to be read; that I prefer immediately to all the honors.

As to the pretty girls who went past, from the day on which I had first known that their cheeks could be kissed, I had become curious about their souls. And the Universe had appeared to me more interesting.

Always try to keep a patch of sky above your life.

That which we remember of our conduct is ignored by our closest neighbour; but that which we have forgotten having said, or even what we never said, will cause laughter even into the next world.