“The pleasure of love is in loving; we are happier in the passion we feel than in what we inspire.”

— François de La Rochefoucauld, book Reflections; or Sentences and Moral Maxims

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)

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François de La Rochefoucauld156

French author of maxims and memoirs 1613–1680

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