Marcel Proust Quotes


There is no man ... however wise, who has not at some period of his youth said things, or lived a life, the memory of which is so unpleasant to him that he would gladly expunge it. And yet he ought not entirely to regret it, because he cannot be certain that he has indeed become a wise man -- so far as it is possible for any of us to be wise -- unless he has passed through all the fatuous or unwholesome incarnations by which that ultimate stage must be preceded.


Citations

Proust, Marcel. Within a Budding Grove. Translated by C. K. Scott Moncrieff, Modern Library, 1924.

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Marcel Proust
Marcel Proust
  • Born: July 10, 1871
  • Died: November 18, 1922
  • Nationality: French
  • Profession: Novelist, Essayist, Critic

Valentin Louis Georges Eugène Marcel Proust was a French novelist, critic, and essayist who wrote the monumental novel À la recherche du temps perdu (In Search of Lost Time; earlier rendered as Remembrance of Things Past), published in seven parts between 1913 and 1927. He is considered by critics and writers to be one of the most influential authors of the 20th century.