“What is sweeter than admiration? It is heavenly love; it is affection raised to adoration. We feel ourselves filled with gratitude for the divinity who thus extends the roots of our intelligence, who opens up new vistas for our soul to contemplate, who grants us a happiness so great and so pure that it is without any taint of fear or envy.”
François-René de Chateaubriand, Memoirs from Beyond the Grave: 1768-1800 (trans. Alex Andriesse, courtesy of Richard Brookhiser)