[Le bonheur] est, dans l'amour, un état anormal. - Marcel Proust

Le bonheur est salutaire pour le corps, mais c'est le chagrin qui développe les forces de l'esprit.

My sole consolation when I went upstairs for the night was that Mamma would come in and kiss me after I was in bed. But this good night lasted for so short a time, she went down again so soon, that the moment in which I heard her climb the stairs, and then caught the sound of her garden dress of blue muslin, from which hung little tassels of plaited straw, rustling along the double-doored corridor, was for me a moment of the utmost pain; for it heralded the moment which was to follow it, when she would have left me and gone downstairs again.

... it was with an unusual intensity of pleasure, a pleasure destined to have a lasting effect upon his character and conduct...