L'Abbé Prévost

“ Love has a stronger hold on the heart than luxury, treasures, and wealth, but it cannot afford to despise their help; and nothing is more galling to a sensitive lover than to find that the lack of them is dragging him down, in spite of himself, to the level of the coarsest and most vulgar natures.
It was eleven o'clock when we reached Chaillot. We were welcomed at the inn as old acquaintances. No surprise was expressed at Manon's being in male attire, for in Paris and the surrounding neighborhood it is a common thing to see women in all sorts of disguises. ”

“ She is, to me, all that glory, happiness, and fortune are to other men!
"There are, doubtless, many things which I would lay down my life to gain or to avoid; but to value a thing more than my own life is no reason for prizing it as much as I do Manon."
This train of thought soon brought me to a decision. I rose and walked on, with the determination of first going to see Tiberge, and then M. de T———.
On reaching Paris, I took a hackney-carriage, in spite of the fact that I had no means of paying for it, trusting entirely to my success in obtaining the assistance I was about to solicit. ”

“ The rest of the universe might crumble to atoms before my eyes, and I should look unmoved upon the scene of destruction. And why? Simply because I am utterly indifferent to all else that it contains!"
Such were undoubtedly my actual sentiments; yet, even while setting such slight store on the goods of this world, I could not help realizing how necessary it was to possess some small share of them in order to regard all the rest with truly sovereign contempt. ”

“ M. de T——— went on to relate that he had then gone to Lescaut's lodgings, in the hope of finding me there with my charming mistress. The landlord of the house, who was a coach-builder, declaimed that he had seen nothing of either Manon or myself, adding that if we had been looking for Lescaut it was no wonder we had not been to his house, as we must doubtless have heard of his having been murdered at about the very time in question; whereupon he had willingly proceeded to give all the particulars he knew regarding the cause and circumstances of Lescaut's death. ”