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Explore more quotes by Marcel Proust

"...but the loss of a memory, like the omission of a phrase during reading, rather than making for uncertainty, can lead to a premature certainty."

"People can have many different kinds of pleasure. The real one is that for which they will forsake the others."

"But one never finds a cathedral, a wave in a storm, a dancer's leap in the air quite as high as one has been expecting."

"And so too, in later years, when I began to write a book of my own, and the quality of some sentences seemed so inadequate that I could not make up my mind to go on with the undertaking. I would find the equivalent in Bergotte. But it was only then, when I read them in his pages, that I could enjoy them; when it was I myself who composed them, in my anxiety that they should exactly reproduce what I had perceived in my mind's eye, and in my fear of their not turning out "true to life," how could I find time to ask myself whether what I was writing was pleasing!"

"I never allow myself to be influenced in the smallest degree either by atmospheric disturbances or by the arbitrary divisions of what is known as Time."

"Happiness is beneficial for the body, but it is grief that develops the powers of the mind."

"Habit is a second nature which prevents us from knowing the first, of which it has neither the cruelties nor the enchantments."

"... even in his most artificial creations, nature is the material upon which man has to work; certain spots will persist in remaining surrounded by the vassals of their own special sovereignty, and will raise their immemorial standards among all the 'laid-out' scenery of a park, just as they would have done far from any human interference, in a solitude which must everywhere return to engulf them, springing up out of the necessities of their exposed position, and superimposing itself upon the work of man's hands."
Exlpore more Humanity quotes

"The victory of the ignorant masses always means a temporary backward movement in the progression of humanity!"

"Man lives consciously for himself, but is an unconscious instrument in the attainment of the historic, universal, aims of humanity."

"Murphy watched me thoughtfully for several empty seconds. Then she said, very gently, "You're a good man, Harry."I swallowed and bowed my head, made humble by the tone of her voice and the expression on her face, more than the words themselves.Not always rational," she said, smiling. "But you're the best kind of crazy."

"A poet warrior realizes both the brutality and the beauty in life, and apprehends that the suffering we tragically endure is partly what makes us human. What also makes us human is the ability to love, the ability to stand in nature's presence, and to nurture this earthly paradise to tend to our family's needs."

"Instead of narrowing our allegiances to only include our favored nation, let us sing an anthem to the marvelous human being."

"Hate is no respecter of race - as apparently neither is stupidity."
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