Quotes by abbé Prévost

“Tu sais vaincre assez rapidement, chevalier ; mais tu ne sais pas conserver tes conquêtes.””

“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.””

“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.””

“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””

“The “scandalous” personal life of the abbé Prévost has long been an object of fascination for his readers, which is not necessarily conducive to a proper appreciation of his body of literary works. But, to be perfectly frank, there was certainly enough dirt there to titillate the imagination. It is easy to imagine the first modern biographers of Prévost, from Henry Harrisse to Claire-Eliane Engel, and including Henri Roddier, discovering with astonishment the riveting existence of this ex-Benedictine monk apostate novelist, erudite church scholar, bon vivant, philanderer, occasional crook, apostle of the novel of sensitivity, and spokesman for the passions as well as for moral rectitude.From the Introduction and Translation by Alan J. Singerman””