Giacomo Casanova Quotes

Venetian adventurer and writer (1725–1798)

Giacomo Casanova (2 April 1725 – 4 June 1798) was an Italian adventurer and author; also known as Jacques Casanova de Seingalt. He was famous for his elaborate love affairs and his encounters with famous contemporary figures.

From: Wikiquote (CC BY-SA 4.0)

Native Name: Giacomo Girolamo Casanova

Alternative Names: Casanova • Kazanova • Giacomo Girolamo Casanova di Seingalt • Giacomo Girolamo Casanova de Seingalt • Giovanni Giacomo Casanova de Seingalt • ג'אקומו קאזאנובה • Jacques Casanova de Seingalt • Jacques Casanova • Dzhiakomo Kasanova • Джакомо Казанова • Giacomo Girolamo Casanova De Seingalt • Casanova de Seingalt

From Wikidata (CC0)

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.

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

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

economy spoils pleasure

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

if you have not done anything worthy of being recorded, at least write something worthy of being read.

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

youth runs away from old age, because it is its most cruel enemy

Alcuni dicono che la vita è solo un insieme di sventure; in altre parole, che la vita è una sventura; ma se la vita è una sventura, la morte deve essere sicuramente il contrario, cioè una fortuna, dato che la morte è l'opposto della vita. Questa conclusione sembrerebbe inevitabile. Ma coloro che parlano così sono sicuramente malati o poveri, fossero in buona salute, avessero la borsa ben fornita, l'allegria in cuore, delle Cecilie, delle Marine e la speranza di altre cose ancor migliori, allora cambierebbero sicuramente parere. Io li considero una razza di pessimisti che si alligna solo tra i filosofi spiantati e i teologhi bricconi e atrabiliari. Se il piacere esiste e lo si può godere solo da vivi, la vita è una fortuna.

Finishing first is nothing to brag about.