--- title: "Meaning & Key Takeaway of: In the case of Albertine, I felt that I…" description: "\"“In the case of Albertine, I felt that I should never discover anything, that, out of that tangled mass of details of fact and falsehood, I should neve..." image: "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/543/marcel-proust-114_jealousy_in-the-case-of-albertine-i-felt-that-i-s_2467124.jpg" --- # In the case of Albertine, I felt that I should never… ![“In the case of Albertine, I felt that I should never discover anything, that, out of that tangled mass of details of fact and falsehood, I should never unravel the truth: and that it would always be so, unless I were to shut her up in prison (but prisoners escape) until the end.” quote by Marcel Proust](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/543/marcel-proust-114_jealousy_in-the-case-of-albertine-i-felt-that-i-s_2467124.jpg) [Download](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/543/marcel-proust-114_jealousy_in-the-case-of-albertine-i-felt-that-i-s_2467124.jpg) [Open image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/543/marcel-proust-114_jealousy_in-the-case-of-albertine-i-felt-that-i-s_2467124.jpg) > ““In the case of Albertine, I felt that I should never discover anything, that, out of that tangled mass of details of fact and falsehood, I should never unravel the truth: and that it would always be so, unless I were to shut her up in prison (but prisoners escape) until the end.”” [Marcel Proust](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/marcel-proust/) ## About This Quote This interpretation was drafted with AI assistance. It is one reading of the quote, not the author's own explanation. The narrator fears uncovering truth about Albertine, preferring ignorance despite potential imprisonment, highlighting the tension between truth and denial. **In simple terms:** Truth may be avoided to escape pain. Key Takeaway Confront uncomfortable truths despite fear. Themes love truth denial Mood reflective melancholic Type literary philosophical When to use this quote - relationships - legal investigations - personal introspection - historical research Key Concepts psychology existentialism memory Questions to Reflect On - What truths are you avoiding? - Can denial ever protect you? A Different Perspective Avoiding truth can lead to greater harm. ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ No ratings yet [Jealousy](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/jealousy/) [Prison](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/prison/) [Prisoner](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/prisoner/) [Truth](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/truth/) ## Related quotes > [Shut up in the prison of their own consciences.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/james-ussher/shut-up-in-the-prison-of-their-own-consciences/) [James Ussher](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/james-ussher/) > [I have been studying how I may compare this prison where I live unto the world; Shut up in the prison of their own…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/james-ussher/i-have-been-studying-how-i-may-compare-this-prison-where-i-live-unto-2/) [James Ussher](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/james-ussher/) > [Phaedra of Alonso’s death was a never-ending pain that gnawed at his insides. It made him a prisoner in his own cottage.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/melina-marchetta/phaedra-of-alonso-s-death-was-a-never-ending-pain-that-gnawed-at-his/) [Melina Marchetta](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/melina-marchetta/) > [“A prisoner is imprisoned by the crime that he has committed. A jailer is imprisoned — in the very same prison — by the…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/mokokoma-mokhonoana/a-prisoner-is-imprisoned-by-the-crime-that-he-has-committed-a-jailer/) [Mokokoma Mokhonoana](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/mokokoma-mokhonoana/) > [I want to confess as best I can, but my heart is void. The void is a mirror. I see my face and feel…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/ingmar-bergman/i-want-to-confess-as-best-i-can-but-my-heart-is-void-the-void-is-a/) [Ingmar Bergman](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/ingmar-bergman/) > [Arrival = Prison, and the artist must never be a prisoner.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/henri-matisse/arrival-prison-and-the-artist-must-never-be-a-prisoner/) [Henri Matisse](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/henri-matisse/) > [Karma is often wrongly confused with the notion of a fixed destiny. It is more like an accumulation of tendencies that can lock us…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/jon-kabat-zinn/karma-is-often-wrongly-confused-with-the-notion-of-a-fixed-destiny-it/) [Jon Kabat-Zinn](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/jon-kabat-zinn/) > [In the innermost recesses of humanism, as its very soul, there rages a frantic prisoner who, as a Fascist, turns the world into a…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/anonymous/in-the-innermost-recesses-of-humanism-as-its-very-soul-there-rages-a/) [Anonymous](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/anonymous/) > [Our sins are debts that none can pay but Christ. It is not our tears, but His blood; it is not our sighs, but…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/thomas-brooks/our-sins-are-debts-that-none-can-pay-but-christ-it-is-not-our-tears/) [Thomas Brooks](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/thomas-brooks/) > [“If you know only one language, you're a prisoner, stuck in the tyranny of that one language.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/andrew-cohen/if-you-know-only-one-language-you-re-a-prisoner-stuck-in-the-tyranny/) [Andrew Cohen](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/andrew-cohen/) > [American soldiers had to guard prisoners on the inside while receiving mortar and weapons fire from the outside. Guantanamo is distant from any battlefield,…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/john-yoo/american-soldiers-had-to-guard-prisoners-on-the-inside-while/) [John Yoo](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/john-yoo/) > [Forgiveness is unlocking the door to set someone free and realizing you were the prisoner!](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/anonymous/forgiveness-is-unlocking-the-door-to-set-someone-free-and-realizing/) [Anonymous](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/anonymous/) > [Tonight I feel like a prisoner on fire, waiting desperately... denied, sentenced forever more. Only your love can set me free.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/michael-bolton/tonight-i-feel-like-a-prisoner-on-fire-waiting-desperately-denied/) [Michael Bolton](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/michael-bolton/) > [I will be a model prisoner, as I have been a model citizen](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/edwin-edwards/i-will-be-a-model-prisoner-as-i-have-been-a-model-citizen/) [Edwin Edwards](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/edwin-edwards/) > [“It breaks my heart. Better than your words, your eye tells me all your peril. You are not yet free, you still search for…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/friedrich-nietzsche/it-breaks-my-heart-better-than-your-words-your-eye-tells-me-all-your/) [Friedrich Nietzsche](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/friedrich-nietzsche/) ## More by Marcel Proust > [“machinery' of life at Versailles; and was able, too, to persuade herself that her silence, a shade of good humour or of arrogance on…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/marcel-proust/machinery-of-life-at-versailles-and-was-able-too-to-persuade-herself/) [Marcel Proust](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/marcel-proust/) > [ “For her \[Françoise\], wealth was like a necessary condition without which virtue would lack both merit and charm. She made so little distinction between… ](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/marcel-proust/for-her-fran-oise-wealth-was-like-a-necessary-condition-without-which/) [Marcel Proust](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/marcel-proust/) > [Knowing does not always allow us to prevent, but at least the things that we know, we hold them, if not in our hands,…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/marcel-proust/knowing-does-not-always-allow-us-to-prevent-but-at-least-the-things/) [Marcel Proust](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/marcel-proust/) > [Death is in truth an illness from which we recover](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/marcel-proust/death-is-in-truth-an-illness-from-which-we-recover/) [Marcel Proust](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/marcel-proust/) > [The bonds that unite another person to our self exist only in our mind.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/marcel-proust/the-bonds-that-unite-another-person-to-our-self-exist-only-in-our-mind/) [Marcel Proust](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/marcel-proust/) > [...a writer's works, like the water in an artesian well, mount to a height which is in proportion to the depth to which suffering…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/marcel-proust/a-writer-s-works-like-the-water-in-an-artesian-well-mount-to-a-height/) [Marcel Proust](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/marcel-proust/) > [“Then from those profound slumbers we awake in a dawn, not knowing who we are, being nobody, newly born, ready for anything, the brain…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/marcel-proust/then-from-those-profound-slumbers-we-awake-in-a-dawn-not-knowing-who/) [Marcel Proust](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/marcel-proust/) > [“Art extracted from the most familiar reality does indeed exist and its domain is perhaps the largest of any.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/marcel-proust/art-extracted-from-the-most-familiar-reality-does-indeed-exist-and/) [Marcel Proust](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/marcel-proust/) > [I find very reasonable the Celtic belief that the souls of our dearly departed are trapped in some inferior being, in an animal, aplant,…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/marcel-proust/i-find-very-reasonable-the-celtic-belief-that-the-souls-of-our-dearly/) [Marcel Proust](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/marcel-proust/) > [“When you heard anyone in the middle of a talk which was being deliberately kept off the Affair announce furtively some piece of political…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/marcel-proust/when-you-heard-anyone-in-the-middle-of-a-talk-which-was-being/) [Marcel Proust](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/marcel-proust/) > [“We betroth ourselves by proxy, and then feel obliged to marry the intermediary.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/marcel-proust/we-betroth-ourselves-by-proxy-and-then-feel-obliged-to-marry-the/) [Marcel Proust](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/marcel-proust/) > [“But the old lady on the contrary, far from justifying her daughter’s fears, felt every time someone of her own age “disappeared” that she…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/marcel-proust/but-the-old-lady-on-the-contrary-far-from-justifying-her-daughter-s/) [Marcel Proust](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/marcel-proust/) > [Often it is just lack of imagination that keeps a man from suffering very much.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/marcel-proust/often-it-is-just-lack-of-imagination-that-keeps-a-man-from-suffering/) [Marcel Proust](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/marcel-proust/) > [“When we are nice to others, we generally lose all claim to their respect.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/marcel-proust/when-we-are-nice-to-others-we-generally-lose-all-claim-to-their/) [Marcel Proust](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/marcel-proust/) > [“Nobility is often no more than the inner aspect which our egotistical feelings assume when we have not yet named and classified them.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/marcel-proust/nobility-is-often-no-more-than-the-inner-aspect-which-our-egotistical/) [Marcel Proust](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/marcel-proust/) [Explore all 1,113 Marcel Proust quotes ](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/marcel-proust/) ## More Jealousy quotes > [The vision of the left, full of envy and resentment, takes its worst toll on those at the bottom - whether black or white…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/thomas-sowell/the-vision-of-the-left-full-of-envy-and-resentment-takes-its-worst/) [Thomas Sowell](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/thomas-sowell/) > [“That's the catch about betrayal, of course: that it feels good, that there's something immensely pleasurable about moving from a complicated relationship which involves…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/nora-ephron/that-s-the-catch-about-betrayal-of-course-that-it-feels-good-that/) [Nora Ephron](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/nora-ephron/) > [“To be mature is, we're told, to move beyond possessiveness. Jealousy is for babies. The mature person knows that no one owns anyone.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/alain-de-botton/to-be-mature-is-we-re-told-to-move-beyond-possessiveness-jealousy-is/) [Alain de Botton](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/alain-de-botton/) > [“He often remembered his dad's admonition that envy was mental theft. If you coveted another man's possessions, Dad said, then you should be willing…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/dean-koontz/he-often-remembered-his-dad-s-admonition-that-envy-was-mental-theft/) [Dean Koontz](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/dean-koontz/) > [Being with a jealous person is better than someone who never cares about what you do.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/anonymous/being-with-a-jealous-person-is-better-than-someone-who-never-cares/) [Anonymous](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/anonymous/) > [Dont hate me cause ur man want me dont be jealouse cause hes thinking of when he says he loves u dont hate him…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/ana/dont-hate-me-cause-ur-man-want-me-dont-be-jealouse-cause-hes-thinking/) [Ana](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/ana/) > [~Haters only Hate things they cant have and the people they cant be. its just a little thing called Jealousy~](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/im-nothing/haters-only-hate-things-they-cant-have-and-the-people-they-cant-be/) Im Nothing > [“Love is like a box, fair on every side, jealousy is like a triangle, sharp at every corner,miss is like a circle,endless”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/nabil-marzuq-khairi/love-is-like-a-box-fair-on-every-side-jealousy-is-like-a-triangle/) Nabil Marzuq Khairi > [I avoid envy at all costs.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/claudia-winkleman/i-avoid-envy-at-all-costs/) [Claudia Winkleman](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/claudia-winkleman/) > [But love is different for every person. For some it's hate, for some it's joy, for some it's fear, for some it's jealousy, for…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/james-frey/but-love-is-different-for-every-person-for-some-it-s-hate-for-some-it/) [James Frey](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/james-frey/) > [A real flame of love is a subtle thing. It burns as a will-o'-the-wisp, dancing onward to fairy lands of delight. It roars as…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/theodore-dreiser/a-real-flame-of-love-is-a-subtle-thing-it-burns-as-a-will-o-the-wisp/) [Theodore Dreiser](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/theodore-dreiser/) > [Men are jealous of every woman, even when they dont have the slightest interest in her themselves.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/jan-neruda/men-are-jealous-of-every-woman-even-when-they-dont-have-the-slightest/) [Jan Neruda](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/jan-neruda/) > [avarice breeds envy, a worm that is always gnawing, letting the avaricious enjoy neither their own nor anyone else's good.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/st-catherine-of-siena/avarice-breeds-envy-a-worm-that-is-always-gnawing-letting-the/) [St. Catherine of Siena](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/st-catherine-of-siena/) > [I used to get so jealous if my wife liked another band more than my own. Come to think of it, I still do.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/tom-delonge/i-used-to-get-so-jealous-if-my-wife-liked-another-band-more-than-my/) [Tom DeLonge](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/tom-delonge/) > [Let your love drive you mad, mad about life, mad about the smell of Jasmine. Mad about the painting that reminds you of one…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/melody-minagar/let-your-love-drive-you-mad-mad-about-life-mad-about-the-smell-of/) [Melody Minagar](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/melody-minagar/) [Browse all 2,945 Jealousy quotes ](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/jealousy/) ```json { "@context": "https://schema.org", "@graph": [ { "@type": "Quotation", "text": "“In the case of Albertine, I felt that I should never discover anything, that, out of that tangled mass of details of fact and falsehood, I should never unravel the truth: and that it would always be so, unless I were to shut her up in prison (but prisoners escape) until the end.”", "creator": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Marcel Proust" }, "isPartOf": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#website" }, "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/marcel-proust/in-the-case-of-albertine-i-felt-that-i-should-never-discover-anything/", "about": { "@type": "Thing", "name": "Jealousy" }, "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/marcel-proust/in-the-case-of-albertine-i-felt-that-i-should-never-discover-anything/#quotation", "image": { "@type": "ImageObject", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/543/marcel-proust-114_jealousy_in-the-case-of-albertine-i-felt-that-i-s_2467124.jpg", "contentUrl": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/543/marcel-proust-114_jealousy_in-the-case-of-albertine-i-felt-that-i-s_2467124.jpg", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/543/marcel-proust-114_jealousy_in-the-case-of-albertine-i-felt-that-i-s_2467124.jpg", "width": 1080, "height": 1080, "caption": "“In the case of Albertine, I felt that I should never discover anything, that, out of that tangled mass of…” — Marcel Proust", "creditText": "SMS4Smile Quotes", "creator": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization" } } }, { "@type": "BreadcrumbList", "itemListElement": [ { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 1, "name": "Home", "item": "https://sms4smile.com/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 2, "name": "Quotes", "item": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 3, "name": "Marcel Proust", "item": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/marcel-proust/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 4, "name": "“In the case of Albertine, I...", "item": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/marcel-proust/in-the-case-of-albertine-i-felt-that-i-should-never-discover-anything/" } ], "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/marcel-proust/in-the-case-of-albertine-i-felt-that-i-should-never-discover-anything/#breadcrumb" }, { "@type": "WebSite", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#website", "name": "SMS4Smile Quotes", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/", "publisher": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization" } }, { "@type": "Organization", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization", "name": "SMS4Smile Quotes", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/", "logo": { "@type": "ImageObject", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/wp-content/themes/sq/assets/icons/icon-512.png", "width": 512, "height": 512 } } ] } ```