“The future is a world limited by ourselves; in it we discover only what concerns us and, sometimes, by chance, what interests those whom we love the most.”

—  Maurice Maeterlinck

Joyzelle, Act i, reported in Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919)

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Maurice Maeterlinck photo
Maurice Maeterlinck21
Belgian playwright, poet, and essayist 1862–1949

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In sentiment this is similar to the expression made much earlier by Giordano Bruno in On the Infinite Universe and Worlds (1584) : "What you receive from others is a testimony to their virtue; but all that you do for others is the sign and clear indication of your own."
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