Swann's Way (First Edition) (Norton Critical Editions)

by Marcel Proust

But when from a long-distant past nothing subsists, after the people are dead, after the things are broken and scattered, still, alone, more fragile, but with more vitality, more unsubstantial, more persistent, more faithful, the smell and taste of things remain poised a long time; like souls, ready to remind us, waiting and hoping for their moment, amid the ruins of all the rest; and bear unfaltering, in the tiny and almost impalpable drop of their essence, the vast structure of recollection.

This passage is quoted in its entirety at the end of an episode of "Northern Exposure," season 3, "The Body In Question"