“The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes but in having new eyes.”

— Marcel Proust

Valentin Louis Georges Eugène Marcel Proust  was born in  Auteuil, France  1871.Today is the 141st anniversary of this birth.

[I’m writing today — real stuff that I might get paid for one day — and don’t have time to do the usual research / write up for my Thought of the Day birthday boy or girl. Instead I’ll let Proust speak for himself. Here’s a questionnaire he filled out at a social event when he was 20 years old. Looks like something that would be on Facebook, doesn’t it? Hmmmm I wonder how we’d answer some of these questions…]

Türkçe: en:wiki’den (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

• Your most marked characteristic?
  A craving to be loved, or, to be more precise, to be caressed and spoiled rather than to be admired
• The quality you most like in a man?
  Feminine charm
• The quality you most like in a woman?
  A man’s virtues, and frankness in friendship
• What do you most value in your friends?
  Tenderness – provided they possess a physical charm which makes their tenderness worth having
• What is your principle defect?
  Lack of understanding; weakness of will
• What is your favorite occupation?
  Loving
• What is your dream of happiness?
  Not, I fear, a very elevated one. I really haven’t the courage to say what it is, and if I did I should probably destroy it by the mere fact of putting it into words.
• What to your mind would be the greatest of misfortunes?
  Never to have known my mother or my grandmother
• What would you like to be?
  Myself – as those whom I admire would like me to be
• In what country would you like to live?
  One where certain things that I want would be realized – and where feelings of tenderness would always be reciprocated
• What is your favorite color?
  Beauty lies not in colors but in thier harmony
• What is your favorite flower?
  Hers – but apart from that, all
• What is your favorite bird?
  The swallow
• Who are your favorite prose writers?
  At the moment, Anatole France and Pierre Loti
• Who are your favoite poets?
  Baudelaire and Alfred de Vigny
• Who is your favorite hero of fiction?
  Hamlet
• Who are your favorite heroines of fiction?
  Phedre (crossed out) Berenice
• Who are your favorite composers?
  Beethoven, Wagner, Shuhmann
• Who are your favorite painters?
  Leonardo da Vinci, Rembrandt
• Who are your heroes in real life?
  Monsieur Darlu, Monsieur Boutroux (professors)
• Who are your favorite heroines of history?
  Cleopatra
• What are your favorite names?
  I only have one at a time
• What is it you most dislike?
  My own worst qualities
• What historical figures do you most despise?
  I am not sufficiently educated to say
• What event in military history do you most admire?
  My own enlistment as a volunteer!
• What reform do you most admire?
  (no response)
• What natural gift would you most like to possess?
  Will power and irresistible charm
• How would you like to die?
  A better man than I am, and much beloved
• What is your present state of mind?
  Annoyance at having to think about myself in order to answer these questions
• To what faults do you feel most indulgent?
  Those that I understand
• What is your motto?
  I prefer not to say, for fear it might bring me bad luck.

For more on the Proust questionnaire and to see one he took when he was a child click here.