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
dazzle
The thing is to dazzle
men joy despair
When a man is in love very little is enough to throw him into despair and as little to enhance his joy to the utmost.
beautiful intelligent praise
Praise the beautiful for their intelligence and the intelligent for their beauty.
men design succeed
When a man gets it into his head to do something, and when he exclusively occupies himself in that design, he must succeed, whatever the difficulties. That man will become Grand Vizier or Pope.
gratitude grateful giving
I have had friends who have acted kindly towards me, and it has been my good fortune to have it in my power to give them substantial proofs of my gratitude.
evil done agents
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.
gratitude mean heart
There is no honest woman with an uncorrupted heart whom a man is not sure of conquering by dint of gratitude. It is one of the surest and shortest means.
love-is feelings may
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.
mean wicked action
In the mean time I worship God, laying every wrong action under an interdict which I endeavour to respect, and I loathe the wicked without doing them any injury.
memories years eight
The history of my life must begin by the earliest circumstance which my memory can evoke it will therefore commence when I had attained the age of eight years and four months.
eye wind fixed
The reader of these Memoirs will discover that I never had any fixed aim before my eyes, and that my system, if it can be called a system, has been to glide away unconcernedly on the stream of life, trusting to the wind wherever it led.
lying love-is men
As to the deceit perpetrated upon women, let it pass, for, when love is in the way, men and women as a general rule dupe each other.
memories order mind
The mind of a human being is formed only of comparisons made in order to examine analogies, and therefore cannot precede the existence of memory.
mother sex father
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.