---
title: "Meaning & Key Takeaway of: Oh, my poor little hawthorns,” I was…"
description: "\"“Oh, my poor little hawthorns,” I was assuring them through my sobs, “it is not you that want to make me unhappy, to force me to leave you. You, you ha..."
image: "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/89c/marcel-proust-114_hawthorns_oh-my-poor-little-hawthorns-i-was-assuri_2734555.jpg"
---

#  Oh, my poor little hawthorns,” I was assuring them through…

![“Oh, my poor little hawthorns,” I was assuring them through my sobs, “it is not you that want to make me unhappy, to force me to leave you. You, you have never done me any harm. So I shall always love you.” And, drying my eyes, I promised them that, when I grew up, I would never copy the foolish…” quote by Marcel Proust](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/89c/marcel-proust-114_hawthorns_oh-my-poor-little-hawthorns-i-was-assuri_2734555.jpg)   [Download](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/89c/marcel-proust-114_hawthorns_oh-my-poor-little-hawthorns-i-was-assuri_2734555.jpg) [Open image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/89c/marcel-proust-114_hawthorns_oh-my-poor-little-hawthorns-i-was-assuri_2734555.jpg)

> ““Oh, my poor little hawthorns,” I was assuring them through my sobs, “it is not you that want to make me unhappy, to force me to leave you. You, you have never done me any harm. So I shall always love you.” And, drying my eyes, I promised them that, when I grew up, I would never copy the foolish example of other men, but that even in Paris, on fine spring days, instead of paying calls and listening to silly talk, I would make excursions into the country to see the first hawthorn-trees in bloom.””

[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 speaker vows enduring love for loved ones despite personal sorrow, promising to cherish simple natural joys over superficial social habits.

**In simple terms:** Love persists despite hardship; cherish nature over society.

Key Takeaway

Prioritize authentic connections over empty rituals.

Themes

love nostalgia nature authenticity

Mood

melancholic hopeful

Type

literary reflective

When to use this quote

- family gatherings
- personal reflection
- travel
- urban life
- social gatherings

Key Concepts

Romanticism memory personal growth

Questions to Reflect On

- How do you balance personal grief with commitments to others?
- What simple pleasures can replace superficial social expectations?

A Different Perspective

Idealizing nature may ignore practical realities of urban living.

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[Hawthorn](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/hawthorn-2881150/) [Hawthorn Trees](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/hawthorn-trees-2980035/) [Hawthorns](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/hawthorns-1345043/) [Hawthorns Assuring](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/hawthorns-assuring-2980033/) [Little Hawthorns](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/little-hawthorns-2980034/)

## Related quotes

> [“Oh, my poor little hawthorns," I was assuring them through my sobs, "it isn't you who want me to be unhappy, to force me…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/marcel-proust/oh-my-poor-little-hawthorns-i-was-assuring-them-through-my-sobs-it/)

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> [“Despite the heavy, motionless silence of the hawthorns, these gusts of fragrance came to me like the murmuring of an intense vitality, with which…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/marcel-proust/despite-the-heavy-motionless-silence-of-the-hawthorns-these-gusts-of/)

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> [It's nice to come and play my football here at The Hawthorns.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/dwight-gayle/it-s-nice-to-come-and-play-my-football-here-at-the-hawthorns/)

[Dwight Gayle](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/dwight-gayle/)

> [The Hawthorns has a good atmosphere, like many of the Premier League stadiums.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/nicolas-anelka/the-hawthorns-has-a-good-atmosphere-like-many-of-the-premier-league/)

[Nicolas Anelka](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/nicolas-anelka/)

> [Hawthorn, white and odorous with blossom, framing the quiet fields, and swaying flowers and grasses, and the hum of bees.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/f-s-flint/hawthorn-white-and-odorous-with-blossom-framing-the-quiet-fields-and/)

[F. S Flint](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/f-s-flint/)

> [The world is like a little marsh filled with mint and white hawthorn.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/mary-maclane/the-world-is-like-a-little-marsh-filled-with-mint-and-white-hawthorn/)

[Mary MacLane](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/mary-maclane/)

> [In hawthorn-time the heart grows light.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/algernon-charles-swinburne/in-hawthorn-time-the-heart-grows-light/)

[Algernon Charles Swinburne](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/algernon-charles-swinburne/)

## 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/)

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> [ “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/)

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> [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/)

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> [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/)

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> [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/)

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> [...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/)

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> [“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/)

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> [“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/)

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> [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/)

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> [“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/)

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> [“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/)

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> [“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/)

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> [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/)

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> [“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/)

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## More Hawthorns quotes

> [It's nice to come and play my football here at The Hawthorns.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/dwight-gayle/it-s-nice-to-come-and-play-my-football-here-at-the-hawthorns/)

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> [“Despite the heavy, motionless silence of the hawthorns, these gusts of fragrance came to me like the murmuring of an intense vitality, with which…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/marcel-proust/despite-the-heavy-motionless-silence-of-the-hawthorns-these-gusts-of/)

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> [“Oh, my poor little hawthorns," I was assuring them through my sobs, "it isn't you who want me to be unhappy, to force me…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/marcel-proust/oh-my-poor-little-hawthorns-i-was-assuring-them-through-my-sobs-it/)

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