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The 53 best phrases by Marcel Proust, the writer of nostalgia

The 53 best phrases by Marcel Proust, the writer of nostalgia

April 24, 2024

Reading Marcel Prous' most inspired phrases is a way of recognizing genius of this writer. Surely we find ourselves before one of the most important novelists of France in the nineteenth and twentieth century, both for his status as a brilliant writer and overwhelming philosophical theory. Born in Paris into a wealthy and traditionalist family, Valentin Louis Eugène Marcel Proust (1872 - 1922) did not have an easy life.

Already at an early age, he suffered physical difficulties that seriously affected his health, especially caused by asthma. Then, the overprotection he received from his spouses gave him an important parental dependence, a fact that affected him when his mother died suddenly.


But nevertheless, this sedentary life served him to cultivate a fascinating and imaginative inner world , that made him go back to his memories again and again. This was reflected in their creativity and wisdom: even if we can hardly move from bed, life goes on.

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Marcel Proust's most memorable phrases

In this article we will review Marcel Proust's most relevant phrases by the French author .

1. Nine-tenths of the evils that people suffer, arise from their intellect

Curious way to question human intelligence.


2. It is not only by force of lying to others, but also by lying to ourselves, that we stop noticing that we are lying

It is the number one rule to know how to lie.

3. Desire makes everything flourish; possession makes everything fade

Proust knew first-hand what it meant to be possessive.

4. People do not know when they are happy. They are never as unhappy as they think they are

For Marcel happiness was a lack in society.

5. The ties that bind us to another human being are sanctified when he or she adopts the same point of view

In life we ​​relate to people who resemble us.

6. Give thanks to the people that make us happy; they are the lovely gardeners who make our soul bloom

An excellent way to know how to be grateful to others .


7. After a certain age we pretend that we do not care about the things we most want

According to Proust, priorities change when we do not achieve the objectives set a priori.

8. One does not change, become a different person, while still feeling the feelings of the person that one has ceased to be

Marcel describes perfectly a truth that is often rejected.

9. All of our final decisions are made in a state that will not last

Nothing is right or wrong. Everything can vary according to the moment.

10. The only true paradise is lost paradise

Curious way to describe a place so desired by the human being.

11. We do not receive wisdom; we must discover it for ourselves

For Marcel Proust one should achieve knowledge in a self-taught way .

12. The things we most want are the ones we pretend not to want

We are made to disguise what we most desire.

13. We lie all our lives even, or above all or maybe only, to those who love us

In this sentence the great truth of any society is collected.

14. It is better to dream your own life than to live it, although living it is also dreaming

Anyway, you have to enjoy our day to day.

15. The only real voyage of discovery consists not in looking for new landscapes, but in looking with new eyes

Everything depends on how we approach changes, how we look towards new experiences.

16. Jealousy, which spend their time making false assumptions, when it comes to discovering the truth

In this phrase by Marcel Proust, one can see perfectly Such a worrisome feeling for two people who love each other .

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17. Happiness in love is not a normal state

Marcel Proust was a great defender of love, but he did not confuse this state with happiness.

18. Sometimes we are too willing to believe that the present is the only possible state of things

The French author also liked to always look beyond day to day.

20. Ambition intoxicates more than glory

The desire to want something is very attractive and stimulating.

21. Love is the space and time measured by the heart

Excellent way to describe love.

22. For the kiss, the nose and eyes are as misplaced as the lips are wrong

Marcel Proust was a genius at the time of describing situations. The kiss was a phenomenon to which he paid special attention.

23. Jealousy is usually no more than a restless tyranny applied to the affairs of love

Once again, make us aware of what jealousy means.

24Each kiss calls another kiss

The kiss is something addictive between two people who love each other.

25. True happiness does not consist in finding new lands, but in seeing with other eyes

I already mentioned something about it, Marcel Proust again insists on how to face new experiences .

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26. It would be so difficult to cut the kisses that are given in an hour, like the flowers of a field in the month of May

This phrase manages to describe to perfection what the act of kissing means.

27. So it is with our past. It is work lost to want to evoke it, and all the efforts of our intelligence are useless

You always have to look forward.

28. My cowardice made me at the same time a man, and I did what all men who face face to face suffering and injustice

Marcel had a complicated childhood and adolescence.

29. Happiness is beneficial to the body, it is pain that develops the powers of the mind

According to Proust we should try to be as little skeptical as possible.

30. Little by little, the memory that disappeared, I had forgotten about the girl of my dreams

An example of how it is the nostalgic style of this writer .

31. It is often difficult to bear the tears that we ourselves have caused

Harming others hurts us first.

32. Always try to keep a piece of heaven above your life

The illusion and imagination makes our short life a good stimulus.

33. We have the misfortune of belonging to this world

The author was a little negativist towards the human being.

34. If a little sleep is dangerous, the cure for it is not to dream less, it is to dream all the time

Although we are disappointed by an illusion, we should not lose it for the future.

35. How naturally kisses are born in those first times of love!

Marcel was obsessed with kissing.

36. We are healed of suffering only by experiencing it to the fullest

Only by living several bad experiences can we overcome them.

37. Dear friend, I have died almost three times since this morning

We do not know exactly what the author means by this phrase.

38. Time, which changes people, does not alter the image we have of them

No matter how we change or transform, often that does not change for others.

39. Love is a remarkable example of how little reality means to us

Great way to describe the feeling of love .

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40. The time we have is elastic; the passions we feel expand it, dreams contradict it; and the habit fills what is left

This was Marcel Proust's life.

41. The moment comes as soon as there is nothing to wait for

Things come, you just have to wait for them.

42. My destiny is no longer a place, but a new way of seeing

To face life according to the reality we project.

43. Reading is the fruitful miracle of a communication in the midst of loneliness

Reading is always an advantage both personally and professionally.

44. Love, always dissatisfied, lives at the moment when it is about to arrive

Love was a very present theme for Marcel Proust.

45. Like many intellectuals, he was unable to say a simple thing in a simple way

Intellectuality makes sometimes we do not know how to describe our thoughts well .

46. ​​Let's leave beautiful women to men without imagination

Strong statement that if it were written today would cause controversy but that was normal in the context of Proust's time.

47. It is always like this, driven by a state of mind that is destined not to last, we make our irrevocable decisions

Temperament plays tricks on many occasions.

48. Only through art can we get out of ourselves and know what another person sees

Art makes us evade, illusion and cure disappointment.

49. Distrust of the man who never cries, is usually the most cowardly

Proust was known for his sensitivity declared openly, unusual in men of his time.

50. We must be brave in facing our own contradictions, rather than highlighting those of others

To criticize others, we must be better.

51. Falling in love is the last vital state of our existence

Love seems to be the final state of our life.

52. When you make an unwanted decision, do not regret it in posterity

Marcel Proust was very little given to repentance.

53. If you do not like the reality in which you live, invent it

The author insists again that everything depends on the point of view with which we project our reality.


NOBEL PRIZE in LITERATURE - WikiVidi Documentary (April 2024).


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