Giacomo Casanova
Giacomo Casanova
Giacomo Girolamo Casanovawas an Italian adventurer and author from the Republic of Venice. His autobiography, Histoire de ma vie, is regarded as one of the most authentic sources of the customs and norms of European social life during the 18th century...
NationalityItalian
ProfessionMemoirist
Date of Birth2 April 1725
CountryItaly
men unhappy different
There is no such thing as a perfectly happy or perfectly unhappy man in the world. One has more happiness in his life and another more unhappiness, and the same circumstance may produce widely different effects on individuals of different temperaments.
blood hatred unconquerable-will
I have felt in my very blood, ever since I was born, a most unconquerable hatred towards the whole tribe of fools, and it arises from the fact that I feel myself a blockhead whenever I am in their company.
believe men
Man is free; but not unless he believes he is[.]
cheating practice fool
Cheating is a sin, but honest cunning is simply prudence. It is a virtue. To be sure, it has a likeness to roguery, but that cannot be helped. He who has not learned to practice it is a fool.
believe destiny men
Man is a free agent; but he is not free if he does not believe it, for the more power he attributes to Destiny, the more he deprives himself of the power which God granted him when he gave him reason.
tombs
Marriage is the tomb of love.
life men unhappy
Whether it is happy or unhappy, a man's life is the only treasure he can ever possess.
grief woe complaining
We ourselve are the authors of almost all our woes and griefs, of which we so unreasonably complain.
blow intelligence fool
When you fool a fool you strike a blow for intelligence.
pleasure economy spoil
economy spoils pleasure
believe men agents
Man is a free agent; but he is not free if he does not believe it[.
excess physicians abstinence
I learned very early that our health is always impaired by some excess either of food or abstinence, and I never had any physician except myself.
exercise laughing might
Enjoy the present, bid defiance to the future, laugh at all those reasonable beings who exercise their reason to avoid the misfortunes which they fear, destroying at the same time the pleasure that they might enjoy.
air reason natural
Thence, I suppose, my natural disposition to make fresh acquaintances, and to break with them so readily, although always for a good reason, and never through mere fickleness.