Your memory is good but I think that was the form given in a Dawson's Creek episode (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0555133/quotes http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0555

Your memory is good but I think that was the form given in a Dawson's Creek episode (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0555133/quotes http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0555133/quotes). The one that Goodreads and other sites attribute to Flaubert is: "Pleasure is found first in anticipation, later in memory." I couldn't find a source for this but I think rather than Flaubert this is from Julian Barnes's book Flaubert's Parrot, which has: “Remember the botched brothel-visit in L’Education sentimentale and remember its lesson. Do not participate: happiness lies in the imagination, not the act. Pleasure is found first in anticipation, later in memory.” (https://www.goodreads.com/work/quotes/1414912-flaubert-s-parrot https://www.goodreads.com/work/quotes/1414912-flaubert-s-par...). This quote does not appear in the full text of that book, though (https://archive.org/stream/sentimentaleduca00flauiala/sentimentaleduca00flauiala_djvu.txt https://archive.org/stream/sentimentaleduca00flauiala/sentim...). I totally agree with the sentiment expressed, of course. The real lover not being as beautiful or desirable as the imagined version is a common motif esp. in Middle Eastern literature.