There's nothing like desire to prevent the things one says from having any resemblance to the things in one's mind.
Marcel ProustTo understand a profound thought is to have, at the moment one understands it, a profound thought oneself; and this demands some effort, a genuine descent to the heart of oneself . . . Only desire and love give us the strength to make this effort. The only books that we truly absorb are those we read with real appetite, after having worked hard to get them, so great had been our need of them.
Marcel ProustA little insomnia is not without its value in making us appreciate sleep, in throwing a ray of light upon that darkness.
Marcel ProustOur intonations contain our philosophy of life, what each of us is constantly telling himself about things.
Marcel ProustNone of us constitutes a material whole, identical for everyone, which a person has only to go look up as though we were a book of specifications or a last testament; our social personality is a creation of the minds of others. Even the very simple act that we call "seeing a person we know" is in part an intellectual one. We fill the physical appearance of the individual we see with all the notions we have about him, and of the total picture that we form for ourselves, these notions certainly occupy the greater part.
Marcel Proust