Skip to content

Another day Quote by Marcel Proust

“A woman sees herself dying, in these cases not at the actual moment of death but months, sometimes years before, when death has hideously come to dwell in her. The sufferer makes the acquaintance of the stranger whom she hears coming and going in her brain. She does not know him by sight, it is…” quote by Marcel Proust
Download Open image
““A woman sees herself dying, in these cases not at the actual moment of death but months, sometimes years before, when death has hideously come to dwell in her. The sufferer makes the acquaintance of the stranger whom she hears coming and going in her brain. She does not know him by sight, it is true, but from the sounds which she hears him regularly make she can form an idea of his habits. Is he a criminal? One morning, she can no longer hear him. He has gone. Ah! If it were only for ever! In the evening he has returned. What are his plans? Her specialist, put to the question, like an adored mistress, replies with avowals that one day are believed, another day fail to convince her. Or rather it is not the mistress’s part but that of the servants one interrogates that the doctor plays. They are only third parties. The person whom we press for an answer, whom we suspect of being about to play us false, is life itself, and although we feel her to be no longer the same we believe in her still or at least remain undecided until the day on which she finally abandons us.””

Marcel Proust

About This Quote

Source Novel: In Search of Lost Time, Volume 2, 1919

The passage describes a woman's gradual awareness of death as an ever‑present, unsettling presence that she cannot fully understand, and the futile attempts of doctors to explain it.

In simple terms: A woman feels death looming and cannot grasp it, while doctors give uncertain answers.

Key Takeaway

Accept uncertainty and seek personal meaning beyond medical explanations.

Themes

mortality psychology existential anxiety medical uncertainty

Mood

melancholic reflective introspective

Type

literary philosophical existential

When to use this quote

  • terminal illness coping
  • grief counseling
  • philosophical reflection
  • creative writing
  • palliative care

Key Concepts

subjective experience time memory identity death

Questions to Reflect On

  • How do you confront the unknown aspects of mortality?
  • What role does personal narrative play in making sense of death?
A Different Perspective

Medical explanations may never fully capture the lived experience of impending death.

3.1 out of 5 (10 ratings)

More by Marcel Proust

Explore all 1,113 Marcel Proust quotes

More Another day quotes

Browse all 1,021 Another day quotes