" Envy may well express itself, of course, in the accents of disdain; and “I have no wish to know him” must be translated as “I have no possibility of knowing him.” The latter is the literal translation; but the passionate meaning remains: “I have no wish to know him.” We know it is untrue; yet it is not simple dishonesty that makes us say it: we say it because that is how we feel, and that is enough to abolish the difference between truth and untruth, enough for our happiness. "

― Marcel Proust , In the Shadow of Young Girls in Flower