Arbitrary Quote by Marcel Proust
“It is the wicked deception of love that it begins by making us dwell not upon a woman in the outside world but upon a doll inside our head, the only woman who is always available in fact, the only one we shall ever possess, whom the arbitrary nature of memory, almost as absolute as that of the imagination, may have made as different from the real woman as the real Balbec had been from the Balbec I imagined- a dummy creation that little by little, to our own detriment, we shall force the real woman to resemble.”
About This Quote
Source Novel: In Search of Lost Time, Volume 1, 1913
Love can cause us to idealize an imagined partner, projecting fantasies onto a mental image that replaces real intimacy.
In simple terms: We often love an imagined version more than the real person.
Key Takeaway
Beware of idealizing; seek genuine connection.
Themes
love
idealization
memory
imagination
relationships
Mood
reflective
melancholic
Type
literary
philosophical
When to use this quote
- romantic relationships
- self‑reflection
- therapy
- creative writing
- artistic analysis
Key Concepts
psychology
subjective reality
projection
fictional constructs
Questions to Reflect On
- Do you prioritize fantasy over reality?
- How does memory shape your expectations?
A Different Perspective
The imagined ideal can never fully satisfy real relational needs.
![“For her [Françoise], wealth was like a necessary condition without which virtue would lack both merit and charm. She made so little distinction between the two that she came to see their qualities as interchangeable, expecting material comfort from virtue and moral edification from wealth.” quote by Marcel Proust](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/img-quotes/573/marcel-proust-114_character_for-her-fran-oise-wealth-was-like-a-nece_2687.jpg)
