Marcel Proust Quote

The heart changes...but we learn of it only from reading or by imagination; for in reality its alteration, like that of certain natural phenomena, is so gradual that, even if we are able to distinguish, successively, each of its different states, we are still spared the actual sensation of change.

Pt.1. Swann's way. pt.2. Within a budding grove. pt.3. The Guermantes way (ed. 1934)