Giacomo Casanova Quotes & Sayings

Love is a great poet, its resources are inexhaustible, but if the end it has in view is not obtained, it feels weary and remains silent. — Giacomo Casanova

I found that the writer who says SUBLATA LUCERNA NULLUM DISCRIMEN INTER MULIERES ('when the lamp is taken away, all women are alike') says true; but without love, this great business is a vile thing. — Giacomo Casanova

When you fool a fool you strike a blow for intelligence. — Giacomo Casanova

Love is only a feeling of curiousity more or less intense, grafted upon the inclination placed in us by nature that the species may be preserved. — Giacomo Casanova

The longer you remain in Rome,' said [Cardinal] S.C., 'the smaller you will find it. — Giacomo Casanova

I will begin with this confession: whatever I have done in the course of my life, whether it be good or evil, has been done freely; I am a free agent. — Giacomo Casanova

The raging fire which urged us on was scorching us; it would have burned us had we failed to restrain it. — Giacomo Casanova

It is only necessary to have courage, for strength without self-confidence is useless. — Giacomo Casanova

The sweetest pleasures are those which are hardest to be won. — Giacomo Casanova

It is shallow desires which make a young man bold; strong desires confound him. — Giacomo Casanova

I learned very early that our health is always impaired by some excess either of food or abstinence, and I never had any physician except myself. — Giacomo Casanova

I have loved women even to madness, but I have always loved liberty better. — Giacomo Casanova

I have lived as a philosopher and die as a Christian. — Giacomo Casanova

There is no honest woman with an uncorrupted heart whom a man is not sure of conquering by dint of gratitude. It is one of the surest and shortest means. — Giacomo Casanova

The spirit of rebellion is present in every great city, and the great task of wise government is to keep it dormant, for if it wakes it is a torrent which no dam can hold back. — Giacomo Casanova

God, great principle of all minor principles, God, who is Himself without a principle, could not conceive Himself, if, in order to do it, He required to know His own principle. — Giacomo Casanova

Finishing first is nothing to brag about. — Giacomo Casanova

I cannot think without a shudder of contracting any obligation towards death. I hate death; for, happy or miserable, life is the only blessing which man possesses, and those who do not love it are unworthy of it. — Giacomo Casanova

To lead a blameless life you must curb your passions , and whatever misfortune may befall you cannot be ascribed by anyone to want of good luck, or attributed to fate; these words are devoid of sense, and all fault will rightly fall on your own head. — Giacomo Casanova

Man is free; yet we must not suppose that he is at liberty to do everything he pleases, for he becomes a slave the moment he allows his actions to be ruled by passion. — Giacomo Casanova

The man who seeks to educate himself must first read and then travel in order to correct what he has learned. — Giacomo Casanova

Whether it is happy or unhappy, a man's life is the only treasure he can ever possess. — Giacomo Casanova

What do you want to say to me?'
'Nothing - just to talk about the profession I am entering. I am about to practice virtue in order to find a man who loves it only to destroy it' [replied Mademoiselle Vesian.]
'That is it exactly; and believe me, everything in this life is much the same. We refer everything to ourselves, and each of us is a tyrant. That is why the best of mortals is he who is tolerant. — Giacomo Casanova

I have never done anything in my life except try to make myself ill when I had my health and try to make myself well when I had lost it. I have been equally and thoroughly successful in both, and today in that particular I enjoy perfect health, which I wish I could ruin again; but age prevents me. — Giacomo Casanova

Love becomes imprudent only when it is impatient to enjoy; but when it is a matter of procuring the return of a happiness to which a baleful combination of circumstances has raised impediments, love sees and foresees all that the most subtle perspicacity can discover. — Giacomo Casanova

Hope is nothing but a deceitful flatterer accepted by reason only because it is often in need of palliatives. — Giacomo Casanova

I saw that everything famous and beautiful in the world, if we judge by the descriptions and drawings of writers and artists, always loses when we go to see it and examine it closely. — Giacomo Casanova

Man is a free agent; but he is not free if he does not believe it, for the more power he attributes to Destiny, the more he deprives himself of the power which God granted him when he gave him reason. — Giacomo Casanova

The reader of these Memoirs will discover that I never had any fixed aim before my eyes, and that my system, if it can be called a system, has been to glide away unconcernedly on the stream of life, trusting to the wind wherever it led. — Giacomo Casanova

Give me a man who is man enough to give himself just to the woman who is worth him. If that woman were me,I would love him alone and forever — Giacomo Casanova

THE MAN WHO MAKES NO MISTAKES USUALLY MAKES NOTHING — Giacomo Casanova

I know that I have lived because I have felt, and, feeling giving me the knowledge of my existence, I know likewise that I shall exist no more when I shall have ceased to feel. — Giacomo Casanova

Should I perchance still feel after my death, I would no longer have any doubt, but I would most certainly give the lie to anyone asserting before me that I was dead. — Giacomo Casanova

I have felt in my very blood, ever since I was born, a most unconquerable hatred towards the whole tribe of fools, and it arises from the fact that I feel myself a blockhead whenever I am in their company. — Giacomo Casanova

We ourselve are the authors of almost all our woes and griefs, of which we so unreasonably complain. — Giacomo Casanova

When a man is in love very little is enough to throw him into despair and as little to enhance his joy to the utmost. — Giacomo Casanova

To Kiss : An attempt to absorb the essence of the other person. — Giacomo Casanova

You will laugh when you discover that I often had no scruples about deceiving nitwits and scoundrels and fools when I found it necessary. As for women, this sort of reciprocal deceit cancels itself out, for when love enters in, both parties are usually dupes — Giacomo Casanova

There is no such thing as a perfectly happy or perfectly unhappy man in the world. One has more happiness in his life and another more unhappiness, and the same circumstance may produce widely different effects on individuals of different temperaments. — Giacomo Casanova

Youth runs away from old age, because it is its most cruel enemy — Giacomo Casanova

I have not written my memoirs for those young people who can only save themselves from falling by spending their youth in ignorance, but for those whom experience of life has rendered proof against being seduced, whom living in the fire has transformed into salamanders. — Giacomo Casanova

The same principle that forbids me to lie does not allow me to tell the truth. — Giacomo Casanova

I am bound to add that the excess in too little has ever proved in me more dangerous than the excess in too much; the last may cause indigestion, but the first causes death. — Giacomo Casanova

Marriage is the tomb of love. — Giacomo Casanova

For my future I have no concern, and as a true philosopher, I never would have any, for I know not what it may be: as a Christian, on the other hand, faith must believe without discussion, and the stronger it is, the more it keeps silent. — Giacomo Casanova

[Matrimony] is the grave of love. — Giacomo Casanova

I have had friends who have acted kindly towards me, and it has been my good fortune to have it in my power to give them substantial proofs of my gratitude. — Giacomo Casanova

Since, though I do not repent my amorous exploits, I am far from wanting my example to contribute to the corruption of the fair sex, which deserves our homage for so many reasons, I hope that my observations will foster prudence in fathers and mothers and thus at least deserve their esteem. — Giacomo Casanova

[W]e avenge intelligence when we deceive a fool, and the victory is worth the trouble[. — Giacomo Casanova

I don't conquer, I submit. — Giacomo Casanova

I have met with some of them - very honest fellows, who, with all their stupidity, had a kind of intelligence and an upright good sense, which cannot be the characteristics of fools. — Giacomo Casanova

God ceases to be God only for those who can admit the possibility of His non-existence, and that conception is in itself the most severe punishment they can suffer. — Giacomo Casanova

Those who do not love life do not deserve it. — Giacomo Casanova

If you want to make people laugh, your face must remain serious. — Giacomo Casanova

As to the deceit perpetrated upon women, let it pass, for, when love is in the way, men and women as a general rule dupe each other. — Giacomo Casanova

Desires are but pain and torment, and enjoyment is sweet because it delivers us from them. — Giacomo Casanova

They [his readers, whom he asks to be his friends] will find that I have always loved truth so passionately that I have often resorted to lying as a way of first introducing it into minds which were ignorant of its charms (Casanova, p.34, Vol 1 Preface). — Giacomo Casanova

By recollecting the pleasures I have had formerly, I renew them, I enjoy them a second time, while I laugh at the remembrance of troubles now past, and which I no longer feel. — Giacomo Casanova

Real love is the love that sometimes arises after sensual pleasure: if it does, it is immortal; the other kind inevitably goes stale, for it lies in mere fantasy. — Giacomo Casanova

It is always easy to break one's word to oneself. — Giacomo Casanova

In fact, to gull a fool seems to me an exploit worthy of a witty man. — Giacomo Casanova

Thence, I suppose, my natural disposition to make fresh acquaintances, and to break with them so readily, although always for a good reason, and never through mere fickleness. — Giacomo Casanova

You will be amused when you see that I have more than once deceived without the slightest qualm of conscience, both knaves and fools. — Giacomo Casanova

Man is free; but not unless he believes he is[.] — Giacomo Casanova

If I had married a woman intelligent enough to guide me, to rule me without my feeling that I was ruled, I should have taken good care of my money, I should have had children, and I should not be, as now I am, alone in the world and possessing nothing. — Giacomo Casanova

Beauty without wit offers love nothing but the material enjoyment of its physical charms, whilst witty ugliness captivates by the charms of the mind, and at last fulfills all the desires of the man it has captivated ...
Let anyone ask a beautiful woman without wit whether she would be willing to exchange a small portion of her beauty for a sufficient dose of wit. If she speaks the truth, she will say, "No, I am satisfied to be as I am." But why is she satisfied? Because she is not aware of her own deficiency. Let an ugly but witty woman be asked if she would change her wit against beauty, and she will not hesitate in saying no. Why? Because, knowing the value of her wit, she is well aware that it is sufficient by itself to make her a queen in any society. — Giacomo Casanova

If you refuse me, I shall be compelled to believe that you are cruelly enjoying my misery, and that you have learned in the most accursed school that the best way of preventing a young man from curing himself of an amorous passion is to excite it constantly; but you must agree with me that, to put such tyranny in practice, it is necessary to hate the person it is practised upon, and, if that be so, I ought to call upon my reason to give me the strength necessary to hate you likewise. — Giacomo Casanova

I have always had such sincere love for truth, that I have often begun by telling stories for the purpose of getting truth to enter the heads of those who could not appreciate its charms. — Giacomo Casanova

one who makes no mistakes makes nothing — Giacomo Casanova

The history of my life must begin by the earliest circumstance which my memory can evoke; it will therefore commence when I had attained the age of eight years and four months. — Giacomo Casanova

Be the flame, not the moth. — Giacomo Casanova

I often had no scruples about deceiving nitwits and scoundrels and fools when I found it necessary ... We avenge intelligence when we deceive a fool, and ... deceiving a fool is an exploit worthy of an intelligent man. What has infused my very blood with an unconquerable hatred of the whole tribe of fools from the day of my birth is that I become a fool myself when I am in their company. — Giacomo Casanova

Man is free, but his freedom ceases when he has no faith in it[. — Giacomo Casanova

We love without heeding reason, and cease to love in the same manner. — Giacomo Casanova

Cultivating whatever gave pleasure to my senses was always the chief business of my life; I have never found any occupation more important. Feeling that I was born for the sex opposite mine, I have always loved it and done all that I could to make myself loved by it. I have also been extravagantly fond of good food and irresistibly drawn by anything which could excite curiosity. — Giacomo Casanova

I always made my food congenial to my constitution, and my health was always excellent. — Giacomo Casanova

Hatred, in the course of time, kills the unhappy wretch who delights in nursing it in his bosom. — Giacomo Casanova

When a man gets it into his head to do something, and when he exclusively occupies himself in that design, he must succeed, whatever the difficulties. That man will become Grand Vizier or Pope. — Giacomo Casanova

Heart and head are the constituent parts of character; temperament has almost nothing to do with it, and, therefore, character is dependent upon education, and is susceptible of being corrected and improved. — Giacomo Casanova

The thing is to dazzle — Giacomo Casanova

From that moment our love became sad, and sadness is a disease which gives the death-blow to affection. — Giacomo Casanova

Beauty without wit offers nothing but the enjoyment of its material charms, whilst witty ugliness captivates by the charms of the mind, and at last fulfils all the desires of the man it has captivated. — Giacomo Casanova

I am writing My Life so that I may laugh at myself, and I am succeeding. — Giacomo Casanova

The theory of behavior is useful to the life of man only as the index is useful to him who goes through it before reading the book itself; when he has read it, all that he has learned is the subject matter. Such is the moral teaching that we receive from the discourses, the precepts, and the stories we are treated to by those who bring us up. We listen to it all attentively; but when we have an opportunity to profit by the various advice we have been given, we become possessed by a desire to see if the thing will turn out to be what we have been told it will; we do it, and we are punished by repentance. What recompenses us a little is that in such moments we consider ourselves wise and hence entitled to teach others. Those whom we teach do exactly as we did, from which it follows that the world always stands still or goes from bad to worse. — Giacomo Casanova

Here it is. You assume that I am rich; I am not. I shall have nothing once I have emptied my purse. You perhaps suppose that I am a man of high birth, and I am of a rank either lower than your own or equal to it. I have no talent which can earn money, no employment, no reason to be sure that I shall have anything to eat a few months hence. I have neither relatives nor friends nor rightful claims nor any settled plan. In short, all that I have is youth, health, courage, a modicum of intelligence, a sense of honor and of decency, with a little reading and the bare beginnings of a career in literature. My great treasure is that I am my own master, that I am not dependent upon anyone, and that I am not afraid of misfortunes. My nature tends toward extravagance. Such is the man I am. Now answer me, my beautiful Teresa. — Giacomo Casanova

Love is three quarters curiosity. — Giacomo Casanova

My success and my misfortunes, the bright and the dark days I have gone through, everything has proved to me that in this world, either physical or moral, good comes out of evil just as well as evil comes out of good. — Giacomo Casanova

Happiness is gained by complying with the duties of whatever condition of life one is in, and you must constrain yourself to rise to that exalted station in which destiny has placed you. — Giacomo Casanova

I loved, I was loved, my health was good, I had a great deal of money, and I spent it, I was happy and I confessed it to myself. — Giacomo Casanova

Lies, truth, loveI have always loved truth so passionately that I have often resorted to lying as a way of introducing it into the minds which were ignorant of it's charms. — Giacomo Casanova

My errors will point to thinking men the various roads, and will teach them the great art of treading on the brink of the precipice without falling into it. — Giacomo Casanova

[H]appy or miserable, life is the only blessing which man possesses[. — Giacomo Casanova

After all, a beautiful woman without a mind of her own leaves her lover with no resource after he had physically enjoyed her charms. — Giacomo Casanova

The man who has sufficient power over himself to wait until his nature has recovered its even balance is the truly wise man, but such beings are seldom met with. — Giacomo Casanova

I have often met with happiness after some imprudent step which ought to have brought ruin upon me, and although passing a vote of censure upon myself I would thank God for his mercy. — Giacomo Casanova

The story she had told me was possible, but it was not believable. — Giacomo Casanova

The philosopher is a person who refuses no pleasures which do not produce greater sorrows, and who knows how to create new ones. — Giacomo Casanova

There is no such thing as destiny. We ourselves shape our lives. — Giacomo Casanova

A man who makes known his love by words is a fool. — Giacomo Casanova

If you have not done anything worthy of being recorded, at least write something worthy of being read. — Giacomo Casanova