Giacomo Casanova Quotes

Feeling that I was born for the opposite sex, I have always loved it, and I have done everything I could to make myself beloved by it.

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.

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

Man is free, but his freedom ceases when he has no faith in it; and the greater power he ascribes to faith, the more he deprives himself of that power which God has given to him when He endowed him with the gift of reason. Reason is a particle of the Creator's divinity. When we use it with a spirit of humility and justice we are certain to please the Giver of that precious gift.

Finishing first is nothing to brag about.

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

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

One of the advantages of a great sorrow is that nothing else seems painful.

In fact, I do not believe there is an honest man alive without some pretension,

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

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

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.

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

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

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