That which we remember of our conduct is ignored by our closest neighbour; but that which we have forgotten having said, or even what we never said, will cause laughter even into the next world.

Wars are fought for the benefit of oligarchs, triumphs bought with the blood of peons.

Illness is the doctor to whom we pay most heed; to kindness, to knowledge, we make promise only; pain we obey.

She poured out Swann's tea, inquired "Lemon or cream?" and, on his answering "Cream, please," said to him with a laugh: "A cloud!" And as he pronounced it excellent, "You see, I know just how you like it." This tea had indeed seemed to Swann, just as it seemed to her; something precious, and love has such a need to find some justification for itself, some guarantee of duration, in pleasures which without it would have no existence and must cease with its passing.

A man of letters, merely by reading a phrase, can estimate exactly the literary merit of its author.

There is no idea that does not carry in itself a possible refutation, no word that does not imply its opposite.

Everything that seems imperishable tends to extinguishment.