Skip to content

Everything great in the world comes from neurotics. They alone have founded our religions and composed our masterpieces.

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

Tout ce que nous connaissons de grand nous vient des nerveux. Ce sont eux et non pas d'autres qui ont fondé les religions et composé les chefs-d'œuvre.

Original text (French)

Another quote →

Topics

Religion

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)

All Marcel Proust quotes →

You may also like

All religions, arts and sciences are branches of the same tree. All these aspirations are directed toward ennobling man's life, lifting it from the sphere of mere physical existence and leading the individual towards freedom.

Albert Einstein Moral Decay (1937)

Science and religion are two human enterprises sharing many features.

Freeman Dyson Infinite in All Directions (1988)

The moment the idea is admitted into society, that property is not as sacred as the law of God, and that there is not a force of law and public justice to protect it, anarchy and tyranny commence.

John Adams A Defence of the Constitutions of Government (1787)

The Puritan hated bear-baiting, not because it gave pain to the bear, but because it gave pleasure to the spectators.

Thomas Babington Macaulay History of England (1849)

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.