
“The pleasure of love is in loving; we are happier in the passion we feel than in what we inspire.”
Le plaisir de l'amour est d'aimer; et l'on est plus heureux par la passion que l'on a que par celle que l'on donne.
Maxim 259. Compare: "They who inspire it most are fortunate, As I am now; but those who feel it most Are happier still", Percy Bysshe Shelley, Prometheus Unbound, Act ii, Scene 5.
Reflections; or Sentences and Moral Maxims (1665–1678)