Manon Lescaut Quotes

“The heart of a father is the masterpiece of nature.”
― Prevost Abbe, Manon Lescaut

“It has never been matter of wonder to me that human resolutions are liable to change; one passion gives them birth, another may destroy them.”
― Antoine François Prévost, Manon Lescaut

“Some say that Love, at sight of human ties, Spreads his light wings and in a moment flies.”
― Abbé Prévost, Manon Lescaut

“May your criminal enjoyments vanish as a shadow! may your ill-gotten wealth leave you without a resource; and may you yourself remain alone and deserted, to learn the vanity of these things, which now divert you from better pursuits!”
― Antoine François Prévost, Manon Lescaut

“Love! love!.. thou art never to be reconciled with discretion!”
― Antoine François Prévost, Manon Lescaut

“The fidelity I expect of you is that of the heart”
― Antoine François Prévost, Manon Lescaut

“There is nothing more glorious—nothing that does more honour to true virtue, than the confidence with which one approaches a friend of tried integrity.”
― Antoine François Prévost, Manon Lescaut

“...I love her so passionately that she has made me the most unhappy man alive.”
― Abbé Prévost, Manon Lescaut

“Love is an innocent passion. How is it that, for me, it's turned into a source of misery and immortality?”
― Abbé Prévost, Manon Lescaut

“The girl arrived; I thought her handsome; and as I doubted not that you would be mortified by my absence, I did most sincerely hope that she would be able to dissipate something of your ennui: for it is the fidelity of the heart alone that I value.”
― Antoine François Prévost, Manon Lescaut

“Et puis tu es un chimiste admirable, ajoutai-je en l’embrassant ; tu transformes tout en or.”
― Abbé Prévost, Manon Lescaut - 85

“How hard it is for a father‚ when he’s loved his son dearly and done all he can to make him into an honest man‚ to find out in the end that all he’s got is a scoundrel who’s a disgrace to him! An accident of fate one can get over. It fades with time‚ as does the grief it causes. But what remedy is there for an evil that grows worse every day‚ as happens with the dissolute behaviour of a depraved son who’s lost all sense of honour? You’ve nothing to say‚ wretch‚” he added. “Just look at that false modesty and hypocritical meekness. Anyone would think you were the most honest man alive!”
― Antoine François Prévost, Manon Lescaut

“It has never surprised me that human resolutions should be subject to change: one passion prompts them‚ another may overturn them.”
― Antoine François Prévost, Manon Lescaut

“I swear that you are the idol of my heart, my dear Chevalier, and there is nobody in the world I love as I love you. But don't you see, my poor darling, that loyalty is a silly virtue in the pass we are in? Do you really think we can love each other with nothing to eat? one fine day, Hunger would lead me into some fatal mistake and thinking I was sign for love, I should really be drawing my last breath”
― Antoine François Prévost, Manon Lescaut

“Ah ! les expressions ne rendent jamais qu'à demi les sentiments du cœur.”
― Abbé Prévost, Manon Lescaut

“¡Pérfida Manon!”
― Abate Prevost, Manon Lescaut

“Perfide Manon ! Ah! perfide! perfide! Elle me répéta, en pleurant à chaudes larmes, qu'elle ne prétendait point justifier sa perfidie. Que prétendez-vous donc ? m'écriai-je encore. Je prétends mourir, répondit-elle, si vous ne me rendez votre cœur, sans lequel il est impossible que je vive. Demande donc ma vie, infidèle! repris-je en versant moi-même des pleurs, que je m'efforçai en vain de retenir. Demande ma vie, qui est l'unique chose qui me reste à te sacrifier; car mon cœur n'a jamais cessé d'être à toi. À peine eus-je achevé ces derniers mots, qu'elle se leva avec transport pour venir m'embrasser. Elle m'accabla de mille caresses passionnées. Elle m'appela par tous les noms que l'amour invente pour exprimer ses plus vives tendresses.”
― Abbe Prevost, Histoire du Chevalier des Grieux et de manon Lescaut

“Most of the great and wealthy are fools, that's obvious to anyone who knows a bit about life, and what could be fairer than that? After all, if they had wit as well as wealth, they'd be far too well off and the rest of mankind far too wretched.”
― Abbé Prévost, Manon Lescaut

“Tu sais vaincre assez rapidement, chevalier ; mais tu ne sais pas conserver tes conquêtes.”
― Abbé Prévost, Manon Lescaut - 85

“on ne ferait pas une divinité de l’amour, s’il n’opérait souvent des prodiges”
― Antoine François Prévost, Manon Lescaut

“So‚ you preachers who want to lead me back to virtue‚ tell me it’s indispensable‚ a necessity‚ but don’t conceal the fact that it’s demanding and difficult. Make the point that the delights of love are fleeting‚ that they’re forbidden‚ that they’ll be followed by eternal suffering and – something that may well make an even greater impression on me – that the sweeter and more wonderful they are‚ the more handsomely heaven will reward such a great sacrifice‚ but admit that‚ with hearts the way we have them‚ it’s those delights which offer us the most perfect happiness available on earth.”
― Antoine François Prévost, Manon Lescaut

“It was at that moment that honour and virtue made me feel the pangs of remorse once more and I looked back with a sigh to Amiens‚ my father’s house‚ Saint-Sulpice and all those places where I’d lived in innocence.”
― Antoine François Prévost, Manon Lescaut

“Still‚ whatever the precise nature of what I felt‚ it’s certain that grief‚ resentment‚ jealousy and shame all came into it. If only love hadn’t been still more in evidence than all the rest!”
― Antoine François Prévost, Manon Lescaut

“Amongst the twelve women‚ chained together by the waist in sixes‚ was one whose demeanour was so at odds with her situation that in any other circumstances I would have taken her for a person of the highest rank. She was visibly distressed and her clothes were filthy‚ but these things detracted so little from the impression she made that I found myself filled with respect and pity for her. She was trying‚ as far as the chains would permit‚ to turn away from the onlookers and this attempt to conceal her face from them was so natural that it seemed inspired by female modesty.”
― Antoine François Prévost, Manon Lescaut

“know my name and find out where I was?”
― Antoine François Prévost, Manon Lescaut

“I was horror-stricken at the contrast between the serenity of but a few moments ago and the wild stirrings of desire I could already feel within me. l was shuddering as you do when you find yourself alone at night on some desolate moorland, when all familiar bearings are lost and a panic fear comes over you that you can dispel only by calmly studying all the landmarks”
― Antoine François Prévost, Manon Lescaut

“Pour moi, qui n'ai que de l'amour et de la constance à offrir les femmes méprisent ma misère et font leur jouet de ma simplicité. J'ajoutai”
― Abbé Prévost, Manon Lescaut

“De la manière dont nous sommes faits, il est certain que notre félicité consiste dans le plaisir ; je défie qu'on s'en forme une autre idée ; or le cœur n'a pas besoin de se consulter longtemps pour sentir que, de tous les plaisirs, les plus doux sont ceux de l'amour.”
― Abbé Prévost, Manon Lescaut

“on ne ferait pas une divinité de l'amour, s'il n'opérait souvent des prodiges.”
― Abbé Prévost, Manon Lescaut

“– Je puis mourir, disais-je ; je le devrais
même, après tant de honte et de douleur ; mais je
souffrirais mille morts sans pouvoir oublier
l’ingrate Manon.”
― Abbe Prevost, Manon Lescaut