The best Manon Lescaut quotes

It has never surprised me that human resolutions should be subject to change: one passion prompts them‚ another may overturn them.

The portrait I have to paint is of…an ambiguous character, a mixture of virtues and vices, a perpetual contrast between good impulses and bad actions.

The heart of a father is the masterpiece of nature.

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!

The foolishness of the great and the wealthy is an excellent source of revenue for the humble.

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!

Nothing is more wonderful, or honors virtue more, than the confidence with which we turn to people whose probity we have long been acquainted with.

How many deserters there are from the rigours of virtue, how few from the cause of love!