--- title: "Meaning & Key Takeaway of: We believe we can change things according…" description: "\"We believe we can change things according to our wishes because that's the only happy solution we can see. We don't think of what usually happens and w..." image: "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/838/marcel-proust-114_believe_we-believe-we-can-change-things-accordin_2237655.jpg" --- # We believe we can change things according to our wishes… ![“We believe we can change things according to our wishes because that's the only happy solution we can see. We don't think of what usually happens and what is also a happy solution; things don't change, but by and by our wishes change.” quote by Marcel Proust](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/838/marcel-proust-114_believe_we-believe-we-can-change-things-accordin_2237655.jpg) [Download](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/838/marcel-proust-114_believe_we-believe-we-can-change-things-accordin_2237655.jpg) [Open image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/838/marcel-proust-114_believe_we-believe-we-can-change-things-accordin_2237655.jpg) > “We believe we can change things according to our wishes because that's the only happy solution we can see. We don't think of what usually happens and what is also a happy solution; things don't change, but by and by our wishes change.” [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. We often imagine that changing external circumstances will bring happiness, overlooking that our desires evolve and shape our perception of fulfillment. **In simple terms:** Changing wishes, not circumstances, leads to happiness. Key Takeaway Focus on inner growth rather than external change. Themes self‑reflection desire happiness change perception Mood contemplative hopeful Type philosophical motivational When to use this quote - career decisions - relationship goals - personal development - mindset shifts Key Concepts psychology philosophy subjective well‑being Questions to Reflect On - What internal shifts could bring lasting contentment? - How do your wishes reflect your true values? A Different Perspective Assuming external change alone can solve deep dissatisfaction may ignore underlying issues. ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ No ratings yet [Believe](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/believe/) [Believe Change](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/believe-change/) [Change](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/change/) [Change things](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/change-things/) [Change Wishes](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/change-wishes-631599/) [Don't change](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/don-t-change/) [Happens](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/happens/) [Perspective](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/perspective/) [Solutions](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/solutions/) [Thinking](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/thinking/) [Wish](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/wish/) [Wishes Change](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/wishes-change-631598/) ## Related quotes > [Things don't change, but by and by our wishes change.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/marcel-proust/things-don-t-change-but-by-and-by-our-wishes-change/) [Marcel Proust](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/marcel-proust/) > [The only wishes that will ever change you are the kind that may, at any moment, eat you whole.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/janette-rallison/the-only-wishes-that-will-ever-change-you-are-the-kind-that-may-at/) [Janette Rallison](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/janette-rallison/) > [No one is perfect and everyone wishes they could change something about themselves.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/julia-jones/no-one-is-perfect-and-everyone-wishes-they-could-change-something/) [Julia Jones](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/julia-jones/) > [“We believe that we can change the things around us in accordance with our desires—we believe it because otherwise we can see no favourable…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/marcel-proust/we-believe-that-we-can-change-the-things-around-us-in-accordance-with-2/) [Marcel Proust](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/marcel-proust/) > [“We believe that we can change the things around us in accordance with our desires—we believe it because otherwise we can see no favourable…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/marcel-proust/we-believe-that-we-can-change-the-things-around-us-in-accordance-with/) [Marcel Proust](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/marcel-proust/) > [I don't change. The things around me change.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/jeremy-renner/i-don-t-change-the-things-around-me-change/) [Jeremy Renner](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/jeremy-renner/) > [People don't get to change things. Things change people once in a while, but people don't change things.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/lawrence-block/people-don-t-get-to-change-things-things-change-people-once-in-a/) [Lawrence Block](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/lawrence-block/) > [“What I fault newspapers for is that day after day they draw our attention to insignificant things whereas only three or four times in…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/marcel-proust/what-i-fault-newspapers-for-is-that-day-after-day-they-draw-our/) [Marcel Proust](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/marcel-proust/) > [“You may not control all the events that happen to you, but you can decide not to be reduced by them. Try to be…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/maya-angelou/you-may-not-control-all-the-events-that-happen-to-you-but-you-can/) [Maya Angelou](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/maya-angelou/) > [Now the same mystery which often veils from our eyes the reason for a catastrophe envelops just as frequently, when love is in question,…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/marcel-proust/now-the-same-mystery-which-often-veils-from-our-eyes-the-reason-for-a/) [Marcel Proust](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/marcel-proust/) > [Many leaders of big organizations, I think, don't believe that change is possible. But if you look at history, things do change, and if…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/larry-page/many-leaders-of-big-organizations-i-think-don-t-believe-that-change/) [Larry Page](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/larry-page/) > [I like working with people. I believe change can only come through collaboration.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/alain-de-botton/i-like-working-with-people-i-believe-change-can-only-come-through/) [Alain de Botton](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/alain-de-botton/) > [“When you change what you believe, you change what you do... which changes what you get.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/odille-rault/when-you-change-what-you-believe-you-change-what-you-do-which-changes/) [Odille Rault](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/odille-rault/) > [We're on some path that's set since we're born, but I still believe we can change some things. So I believe in my faith,…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/rm/we-re-on-some-path-that-s-set-since-we-re-born-but-i-still-believe-we/) [RM](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/rm/) > [Lifting whole passages from someone else's speeches is not change you can believe in. It's change you can Xerox.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/hillary-clinton/lifting-whole-passages-from-someone-else-s-speeches-is-not-change-you/) [Hillary Clinton](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/hillary-clinton/) ## 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 Believe quotes > [I actually think acting is a form of self-hypnosis. 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And to give that up for, like, the TV, the cars,…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/bruce-springsteen/i-understand-that-it-s-the-music-that-keeps-me-alive-that-s-my/) [Bruce Springsteen](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/bruce-springsteen/) > [I don't really like too much credit. I know nobody's going to believe this, but I'd rather be able to score goals and nobody…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/bradley-wright-phillips/i-don-t-really-like-too-much-credit-i-know-nobody-s-going-to-believe/) [Bradley Wright-Phillips](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/bradley-wright-phillips/) > [“What I have a problem with is not so much religion or god, but faith. When you say you believe something in your heart…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/penn-jillette/what-i-have-a-problem-with-is-not-so-much-religion-or-god-but-faith/) [Penn Jillette](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/penn-jillette/) > [Bush reiterated his stand to conservatives opposing his decision on stem cell research. 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