Giacomo Casanova

“ I owe no man an account of my thoughts, deeds, and words, nature had implanted in me a strong dislike to this brother of mine, and his conduct as a man and a priest, and, above all, his connivance with Possano, had made him so hateful to me that I should have watched him being hanged with the utmost indifference, not to say with the greatest pleasure. Let everyone have his own principles and his own passions, and my favourite passion has always been vengeance. ”

“ I have loved women even to madness, but I have always loved liberty better; and whenever I have been in danger of losing it, fate has come to my rescue.
The longer I live, the more interest I take in my papers. They are the treasure which attaches me to life and makes death more hateful still. ”

“ If it happens sometimes that man suffers without any expectation of a cure, he necessarily finds pleasure in the complete certainty of the end of his life; for the worst, in all cases, must be either a sleep arising from extreme dejection, during which we have the consolation of happy dreams or the loss of all sensitiveness. But when we are happy, our happiness is never disturbed by the thought that it will be followed by grief. ”

“ Now, when all these troubles have been long over and I can think over them calmly, reflecting on the annoyances I experienced at Amsterdam, where I might have been so happy, I am forced to admit that we ourselves are the authors of almost all our woes and griefs, of which we so unreasonably complain. If I could live my life over again, should I be wiser? ”

“ But love fills our minds with idle visions, and draws a veil over the truth. The fortnight went by without my even kissing her hand, and every time I came I brought some expensive gift, which seemed cheap to me when I obtained such smiles of gratitude in exchange. ”

“ Philosophic reader, if you will place yourself for a moment in my position, if you will share the sufferings which for fifteen months had been my lot, if you think of my danger on the top of a roof, where the slightest step in a wrong direction would have cost me my life, if you consider the few hours at my disposal to overcome difficulties which might spring up at any moment, the candid confession I am about to make will not lower me in your esteem; at any rate, if you do not forget that a man in an anxious and dangerous position is in reality only half himself. ”

“ As I had seen some beautiful dresses, fine linen, and exquisite lace, I could not refrain from saying that it would be a great pity to sell cheaply what would have to be replaced dearly.
As old age steals on a man he is never tired of dwelling again and again on the incidents of his past life, in spite of his desire to arrest the sands which run out so quickly. ”

“ I was in a great measure indebted, two years later, for my imprisonment under The Leads of Venice; not owing to his slanders, for I do not believe he was capable of that, Jesuit though he was—and even amongst such people there is sometimes some honourable feeling—but through the mystical insinuations which he made in the presence of bigoted persons. I must give fair notice to my readers that, if they are fond of such people, they must not read these Memoirs.
Oh! wonderful power of self-delusion!
People want to know everything, and they invent when they cannot guess the truth. ”

“ You have no longer to bear the "good pleasure" of the sovereign, but you have to endure the whims of the mob and the fancies of the Republic—the ruin of all good Government. A republic presupposes self-denial and a virtuous people; it cannot endure long in our selfish and luxurious days. ”

“ Blondel regards his wife as his mistress. He says that that keeps the flame of love alight, and that as he never had a mistress worthy of being a wife, he is delighted to have a wife worthy of being a mistress. ”

“ I thought myself skilled in physiognomy, and concluded that she was not only perfectly happy, but also the cause of happiness. But here let me say how vain a thing it is for anyone to pronounce a man or woman to be happy or unhappy from a merely cursory inspection. ”

“ Nevertheless he made me privately give in my assent to the proverb, Beware of the man of one book.
"She makes me happy," he added; "and though she brought me no dower, I seem to be a richer man, for she has taught me to look on everything we don't possess as a superfluity."
Timidity is often another word for stupidity.
Though what she said was perfectly reasonable, it stung me to the quick; when one is in an ill humour, everything is fuel for the fire. ”

“ Gladness, madam, is the lot of the happy, and sadness the portion of souls condemned to everlasting pains. Be cheerful, then, and you will do something to deserve your beauty.
The best plan in this world is to be astonished at nothing. ”

“ This thought alone should have silenced me, but an angry man always thinks himself right.
The essence of freedom consists in thinking you have it.
A nation without superstition would be a nation of philosophers, and philosophers would never obey. ”

“ I concluded that a man who wants to be well informed should read first and then correct his knowledge by travel. To know ill is worse than not to know at all, and Montaigne says that we ought to know things well. ”

“ An English lady said, I forget in what connection, that a man of honour should never risk sitting down to dinner at an hotel unless he felt inclined, if necessary, to fight. The remark was very true at that time, when one had to draw the sword for an idle word, and to expose one's self to the consequences of a duel, or else be pointed at, even by the ladies, with the finger of scorn. ”

“ He had never married, and when asked the reason would reply that he knew too well that women would be either tyrants or slaves, and that he did not want to be a tyrant to any woman, nor to be under any woman's orders. ”

“ On his death-bed he became a Catholic out of deference to the tears of his wife; but as his children could not inherit his forty thousand pounds invested in England, without conforming to the Church of England, the family returned to London, where the widow complied with all the obligations of the law of England. What will people not do when their interests are at stake! ”

“ Fifty years ago a wise man said to me: "Every family is troubled by some small tragedy, which should be kept private with the greatest care. In fine, people should learn to wash their dirty linen in private." ”

“ I excited her pity. I saw clearly that she no longer loved me; pity is a debasing feeling which cannot find a home in a heart full of love, for that dreary sentiment is too near a relative of contempt.
When we can feel pity, we love no longer, but a feeling of pity succeeding love is the characteristic only of a great and generous mind.
MILAN AND MANTUA
[JC#5] [jcmmn10.xxx] 2955
O you who despise life, tell me whether that contempt of life renders you worthy of it? ”

“ "She knows my horror for the sacrament of matrimony."—"How is that?"—"I hate it because it is the grave of love." ”

“ Exercise their reason to avoid the misfortunes which they fear
Fanaticism, no matter of what nature, is only the plague
Fatal desire for luxury and empty show spoils all
Favourite passion has always been vengeance
First motive is always self-interest
Foolish enough to write the truth
For in the night, you know, all cats are grey
For is love anything else than a kind of curiosity? ”

“ Man is an animal that has to learn his lesson by hard experience in battling with the storms of life. Thus the world is always in disorder and always ignorant, for those who know are always in an infinitesimal proportion to the whole. ”

“ The last thing which we learn in all languages is wit, and wit never shines so well as in jests. I was thirty years of age before I began to laugh in reading Terence, Plautus and Martial.
Philosophy forbids a man to feel repentance for a good deed, but he must certainly have a right to regret such a deed when it is malevolently misconstrued, and turned against him as a reproach.
PARIS
[JC#6] [jcpar10.xxx] 2956
One of the advantages of a great sorrow is that nothing else seems painful. ”

“ Therefore pleasure, during its active period, is always complete, without alloy; grief is always soothed by hope.
If this and if that, and every other if was conjured up to torment my restless and wretched brain.
People did not want to know things as they truly were, but only as they wished them to be.
MILITARY CAREER
[JC#3] [jcmcr10.xxx] 2953
It is well known that the first result of anger is to deprive the angry man of the faculty of reason, for anger and reason do not belong to the same family. ”

“ WIDGER'S QUOTATIONS FROM THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EDITION OF THE MEMOIRS OF JACQUES CASANOVA DE SEINGALT by David Widger
EDITOR'S NOTE Readers acquainted with the Memoirs of Jacgues Casanova de Seingalt may wish to see if their favorite passages are listed in this selection. The etext editor will be glad to add your suggestions. One of the advantages of internet over paper publication is the ease of quick revision. ”

“ After the game we danced in spite of the prohibition of the Pope, whom no Roman can believe to be infallible, for he forbids dancing and permits games of chance. His successor Ganganelli followed the opposite course, and was no better obeyed.
Pride is the daughter of folly, and always keeps its mother's nature.
But I think he's a robber, and a dangerous robber, too. I know it, because he seems so scrupulously careful not to cheat you in small things.
BACK AGAIN TO PARIS
[JC#19] [jcbpr10.xxx] 2969
It is only fools who complain. ”