Giacomo Casanova: Trending quotes (page 2)

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The Story of My Life (trans. Sartarelli/Hawkes 2001), Preface, p. 10
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Variant: [H]appy or miserable, life is the only blessing which man possesses[. ]

Life , Happiness

“The chief business of my life has always been to indulge my senses; I never knew anything of greater importance. I felt myself born for the fair sex, I have ever loved it dearly, and I have been loved by it as often and as much as I could.”

Giacomo Casanova

Memoirs of J. Casanova de Seingalt (1894)

Love , Life , Sex , Business

“Things have come to such a point in good society that, if you want to be polite, you can no longer ask a man from what country he comes, for if he is a Norman or a Calabrian he has, when he tells you so, to beg your pardon, or, if he is from the Pays de Vaud, to say he is Swiss. Nor will you ask a nobleman what his arms are, for if he does not know the jargon of heraldry you will embarrass him. You must not compliment a gentleman on his fine hair, for if it is a wig, he may think you are mocking him, nor praise a man or a woman on their fine teeth, for they may be false.”

Giacomo Casanova

History of My Life (trans. Trask 1967), 1997 reprint, v. 8, chapter 9, p. 243
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Thinking , Falseness , Country

“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

Memoirs of J. Casanova de Seingalt (1894)

Life , Evil

“We avenge intellect when we dupe a fool, and it is a victory not to be despised”

Giacomo Casanova

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Memoirs (trans. Machen 1894), book 1, Preface http://etext.library.adelaide.edu.au/c/casanova/c33m/preface2.html (We avenge intellect when we dupe a fool, and it is a victory not to be despised [...])
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Variant: We avenge intelligence when we deceive a fool, and the victory is worth the trouble.

Fools , Victory

“Man is a free agent; but he is not free if he does not believe it”

Giacomo Casanova

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History of My Life (trans. Trask 1967), 1997 reprint, Preface, p. 26
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“The happiest man is the one who knows how to obtain the greatest sum of happiness without ever failing in the discharge of his duties, and the most unhappy is the man who has adopted a profession in which he finds himself constantly under the sad necessity of foreseeing the future.”

Giacomo Casanova

"History of My Life" Chapter 17
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Sadness , Future , Happiness

“Even if astrology had been a real science, I knew nothing about it. We find countless events in real history which would never have occurred if they had not been predicted. This is because we are the authors of our so-called destiny, and all the 'antecedent necessities' of the Stoics are chimerical; the argument which proves the power of destiny seems strong only because it is sophistical. Cicero laughed at it. Someone whom he had invited to dinner, who had promised to go, and who had not appeared, wrote to him that since he had not gone it was evident that he had not been iturus ('going to go'). Cicero answers him: Veni ergo cras, et veni etiamsi venturus non sis ('Then come tomorrow, and come even if you are not going to come'). At this date, when I am conscious that I rely entirely on my common sense, I owe this explanation to my reader, despite the axiom, Fata viam inveniunt ('Destiny finds the way'). If the fatalists are obliged by their own philosophy to consider the concatenation of all events necessary, a parte ante ('a priori'), what remains of man's moral freedom is nothing; and in that case he can neither earn merit nor incur guilt. I cannot in conscience admit that I am a machine.”

Giacomo Casanova

History of My Life (trans. Trask 1967), 1997 reprint, v. 7, chapter 8, p. 172
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Way , History , Sense , Freedom

“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

History of My Life (trans. Trask 1967), 1997 reprint, v. 8, chapter 4, p. 110
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Hope , Sex

“Great God, and you witnesses of my death, I have lived as a philosopher, and I die as a Christian.”

Giacomo Casanova

Last words, according to his friend the Prince de Ligne (Mémoires et mélanges historiques et littéraires, book IV, p. 42 http://www.google.com/books?id=upYBAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA42&q=%22Grand+Dieu%22, translated for instance in: The Freeman, p. 224 http://www.google.com/books?id=mmkQAAAAIAAJ&q=%22Great+God%22+%22and+I+die+as+a+Christian%22)

Death , God

“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

History of My Life (trans. Trask 1967), 1997 reprint, v. 9, chapter 7, p. 174
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“[Matrimony] is the grave of love.”

Giacomo Casanova

Memoirs (trans. Machen 1894), book 5 (In London and Moscow), chap. 8 http://etext.library.adelaide.edu.au/c/casanova/c33m/chapter106.html (“She won’t believe it, as she knows my horror for the sacrament of matrimony.” “How is that?” “I hate it because it is the grave of love.”)
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Love

“The man who forgets does not forgive, he only loses the remembrance of the harm inflicted on him; forgiveness is the offspring of a feeling of heroism, of a noble heart, of a generous mind, whilst forgetfulness is only the result of a weak memory, or of an easy carelessness, and still oftener of a natural desire for calm and quietness. Hatred, in the course of time, kills the unhappy wretch who delights in nursing it in his bosom.”

Giacomo Casanova

Memoirs of J. Casanova de Seingalt (1894)

Feeling , Forgiveness , Nature , Memory

“Nothing is so catching as the plague; now, fanaticism, no matter of what nature, is only the plague of the human mind.”

Giacomo Casanova

Memoirs of J. Casanova de Seingalt (1894)

Nature