Man's feelings are always purest and most glowing in the hour of meeting and of farewell.

The quote suggests that human emotion reaches its most sincere, vivid form at thresholds: when we first encounter someone or something, and when we must let it go. Meetings carry hope, curiosity, and the freshness of possibility; farewells concentrate affection and regret because time suddenly feels scarce. In ordinary continuity, feelings can dull under habit, self-protection, or social routine, but beginnings and endings force a kind of emotional honesty. The remark also implies a moral psychology: we often recognize what matters most only when it is newly present or about to be absent, so the “purest” feelings are tied to awareness of change and impermanence.