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There are very few philosophers and artists who are absolutely detached from ambition and respect for power, from "people of position." And among those who are more delicate or more sated, snobism replaces ambition and respect for power in the same way superstition arises on the ruins of religious beliefs.

— Marcel Proust notes to Sesame and Lilies by John Ruskin (1906)

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Ambition

More quotes by Marcel Proust

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

In Search of Lost Time / Remembrance of Things Past (1913)

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

In Search of Lost Time / Remembrance of Things Past (1913)

It is always thus, impelled by a state of mind which is destined not to last, that we make our irrevocable decisions.

In Search of Lost Time / Remembrance of Things Past (1913)

The features of our face are hardly more than gestures become, by habit, permanent.

In Search of Lost Time / Remembrance of Things Past (1913)

We are healed of a suffering only by experiencing it to the full.

In Search of Lost Time / Remembrance of Things Past (1913)

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A wise man is cured of ambition by ambition itself; his aim is so exalted that riches, office, fortune, and favor cannot satisfy him.

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Attribution

Quote text and notes from Wikiquote: Marcel Proust (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.