--- title: "Meaning & Key Takeaway of: Nine tenths of the ills from which…" description: "\"“Nine tenths of the ills from which intelligent people suffer spring from their intellect. They need at least a doctor who understands the disease. How..." image: "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/f17/marcel-proust-114_illness_nine-tenths-of-the-ills-from-which-intel_2482764.jpg" --- # Nine tenths of the ills from which intelligent people… ![“Nine tenths of the ills from which intelligent people suffer spring from their intellect. They need at least a doctor who understands the disease. How can you expect Cottard to be able to treat you? He has made allowances for the difficulty of digesting sauces, for gastric trouble, but he has made…” quote by Marcel Proust](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/f17/marcel-proust-114_illness_nine-tenths-of-the-ills-from-which-intel_2482764.jpg) [Download](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/f17/marcel-proust-114_illness_nine-tenths-of-the-ills-from-which-intel_2482764.jpg) [Open image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/f17/marcel-proust-114_illness_nine-tenths-of-the-ills-from-which-intel_2482764.jpg) > ““Nine tenths of the ills from which intelligent people suffer spring from their intellect. They need at least a doctor who understands the disease. How can you expect Cottard to be able to treat you? He has made allowances for the difficulty of digesting sauces, for gastric trouble, but he has made no allowance for the effect of reading Shakespeare.”” [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 quote suggests that many of the problems faced by intelligent people stem from their own intellect, implying a need for understanding and appropriate treatment of mental complexities. **In simple terms:** Intellect can cause its own problems, requiring specialized help. Key Takeaway Seek understanding of intellectual struggles. Themes intellect suffering health Mood reflective empathetic Type philosophical psychological When to use this quote - academic pressure - creative blocks - mental health consultations Key Concepts psychology self-awareness Questions to Reflect On - What role does self-knowledge play in alleviating intellectual distress? A Different Perspective Intellectual challenges are not always solvable by conventional means. ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ No ratings yet [Illness](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/illness/) [Intellect](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/intellect/) [Intelligent people](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/intelligent-people/) [Shakespeare](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/shakespeare/) [Writers](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/writers/) ## Related quotes > [Nine tenths of the ills from which intelligent people suffer spring from their intellect.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/marcel-proust/nine-tenths-of-the-ills-from-which-intelligent-people-suffer-spring/) [Marcel Proust](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/marcel-proust/) > [The doctor I would want for myself or for anyone else I cared about would be one who understands that disease is more than…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/bernie-siegel/the-doctor-i-would-want-for-myself-or-for-anyone-else-i-cared-about/) [Bernie Siegel](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/bernie-siegel/) > [In order to acquire intellect one must need it. One loses it when it is no longer necessary.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/friedrich-nietzsche/in-order-to-acquire-intellect-one-must-need-it-one-loses-it-when-it/) [Friedrich Nietzsche](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/friedrich-nietzsche/) > [We now demand the light artillery of the intellect; we need the curt, the condensed, the pointed, the readily diffused -- in place of…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/edgar-allan-poe/we-now-demand-the-light-artillery-of-the-intellect-we-need-the-curt/) [Edgar Allan Poe](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/edgar-allan-poe/) > [Three-quarters of the sicknesses of intelligent people come from their intelligence. They need at least a doctor who can understand this sickness.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/marcel-proust/three-quarters-of-the-sicknesses-of-intelligent-people-come-from/) [Marcel Proust](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/marcel-proust/) > [But if we laugh with derision, we will never understand. Human intellectual capacity has not altered for thousands of years so far as we…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/stephen-jay-gould/but-if-we-laugh-with-derision-we-will-never-understand-human/) [Stephen Jay Gould](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/stephen-jay-gould/) > [Indeed, being a beginner is very difficult right now. Book publishers are in a crisis, sales are dwindling, and publishing houses are losing money,…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/sergei-lukyanenko/indeed-being-a-beginner-is-very-difficult-right-now-book-publishers/) [Sergei Lukyanenko](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/sergei-lukyanenko/) > [I believe that we can still have a genre of scientific books suitable for and accessible alike to professionals and interested laypeople. The concepts…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/stephen-jay-gould/i-believe-that-we-can-still-have-a-genre-of-scientific-books-suitable/) [Stephen Jay Gould](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/stephen-jay-gould/) > [To laugh often and much, to win the respect of intelligent people and the affection of children, to earn the appreciation of honest critics…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/markesa-yeager/to-laugh-often-and-much-to-win-the-respect-of-intelligent-people-and/) [Markesa Yeager](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/markesa-yeager/) > [If one person is unkind to an animal it is considered to be cruelty, but if a lot of people are unkind to animals…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/ruth-harrison/if-one-person-is-unkind-to-an-animal-it-is-considered-to-be-cruelty/) [Ruth Harrison](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/ruth-harrison/) > [This man, who for twenty-five years has been reading and writing about art, and in all that time has never understood anything about art,…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/anton-chekhov/this-man-who-for-twenty-five-years-has-been-reading-and-writing-about/) [Anton Chekhov](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/anton-chekhov/) > [People of Bihar are the most intelligent people on earth.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/narendra-modi/people-of-bihar-are-the-most-intelligent-people-on-earth/) [Narendra Modi](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/narendra-modi/) > [“You are what you believe”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/bangambiki-habyarimana/you-are-what-you-believe/) [Bangambiki Habyarimana](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/bangambiki-habyarimana/) > [I am really interested in the idea that art can reach wider, can go further, can go beyond the art world, why not? People…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/anish-kapoor/i-am-really-interested-in-the-idea-that-art-can-reach-wider-can-go/) [Anish Kapoor](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/anish-kapoor/) > [The creation lives as genesis beneath the visible surface of the work. All intelligent people see this after the fact, but only the creative…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/paul-klee/the-creation-lives-as-genesis-beneath-the-visible-surface-of-the-work/) [Paul Klee](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/paul-klee/) ## 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 Illness quotes > [Telling a story of illness, one pulls a thread through a narrow opening flanked on one side by shame and the other by trivia.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/susan-griffin/telling-a-story-of-illness-one-pulls-a-thread-through-a-narrow/) [Susan Griffin](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/susan-griffin/) > [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/) > [This tendency to avoid problems and the emotional suffering inherent in them is the primary basis of all human mental illness](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/charles-r-swindoll/this-tendency-to-avoid-problems-and-the-emotional-suffering-inherent/) [Charles R. 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