Giacomo Casanova: Nothing

Giacomo Casanova was Italian adventurer and author from the Republic of Venice. Explore interesting quotes on nothing.
Giacomo Casanova: 110 quotes11 likes

“I have written the history of my life, and I have a perfect right to do so; but am I wise in throwing it before a public of which I know nothing but evil? No, I am aware it is sheer folly, but I want to be busy, I want to laugh, and why should I deny myself this gratification?”

Giacomo Casanova

Memoirs of J. Casanova de Seingalt (1894)

“one who makes no mistakes makes nothing”

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

Source: The Story of My Life

“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
Referenced

“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)

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

Giacomo Casanova

Memoirs of J. Casanova de Seingalt (1894)

“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

History of My Life (trans. Trask 1967), 1997 reprint, v. 8, chapter 4, p. 94
Referenced