Original text (French)
Happiness is beneficial for the body but it is grief that develops the powers of the mind.
The features of our face are hardly more than gestures become, by habit, permanent.
We are healed of a suffering only by experiencing it to the full.
Love looks not with the eyes, but with the mind,
And therefore is wing'd Cupid painted blind.
To fear love is to fear life, and those who fear life are already three parts dead.
Not for the body, but for the heart; companion and company are needed.
Love seldom haunts the breast where learning lies,
And Venus sets ere Mercury can rise.
Quote text and notes from Wikiquote: Marcel Proust (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.