Skip to content

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

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

La maladie est le plus écouté des médecins: à la bonté, au savoir on ne fait que promettre; on obéit à la souffrance.

Original text (French)

Another quote →

Topics

Kindness

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

Compassion and tolerance are not a sign of weakness, but a sign of strength.

Tenzin Gyatso, 14th Dalai Lama Words Of Wisdom: Selected Quotes by His Holiness the Dalai Lama (2001)

Affectation hides three times as many virtues as charity does sins.

Horace Mann Thoughts Selected from the Writings of Horace Mann (1867)

A daughter who respects you while you’re alive is far better than a son who performs the rites and rituals after you’re gone.

Sanu Sharma

O proud philanthropist, your hope is vain
To get by giving what you lost by gain.

Ambrose Bierce

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.