"Admiration and familiarity are strangers"

In this quote, George Sand is recommending that adoration and familiarity are 2 opposing concepts that do rarely exist side-by-side. Adoration refers to a feeling of respect and affection towards someone or something, while familiarity suggests a sense of closeness and intimacy. Sand is suggesting that when we become too knowledgeable about someone or something, we may lose the capability to truly admire them. This might be due to the fact that familiarity breeds contempt, or since we become desensitized to the qualities that at first stimulated our appreciation. Therefore, Sand is reminding us to keep a balance between affection and familiarity in order to totally value and comprehend the world around us.