Dear Friend: I have nearly died three times since morning.

What artists call posterity is the posterity of the work of art.

The fixity of a habit is generally in direct proportion to its absurdity.

One must never miss an opportunity of quoting things by others which are always more interesting than those one thinks up oneself.

The sight of the little madeleine had recalled nothing to my mind before I tasted it...

For one cannot change, that is to say become another person, while continuing to acquiesce to the feelings of the person one no longer is.

The soldier is convinced that a certain indefinitely extendable time period is accorded him before he is killed, the burglar before he is caught, men in general, before they must die. That is the amulet which preserves individuals — and sometimes populations — not from danger, but from the fear of danger, in reality from the belief in danger, which in some cases allows them to brave it without being brave. Such a confidence, just as unfounded, supports the lover who counts on a reconciliation, a letter.