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
writing laughing succeed
I am writing My Life to laugh at myself, and I am succeeding.
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.
laughing judging advice
[Malipiero's advice to Casanova.] If you wish your audience to cry, you must shed tears yourself, but if you wish to make them laugh you must contrive to look as serious as a judge.
laughing people want
If you want to make people laugh, your face must remain serious.
past laughing remembrance
By recollecting the pleasures I have had formerly, I renew them, I enjoy them a second time, while I laugh at the remembrance of troubles now past, and which I no longer feel.
appearance believe favour granted pray praying seems therefore
Therefore must we pray to God, and believe that He has granted the favour we have been praying for, even when in appearance it seems the reverse.
men blessing life-is
[H]appy or miserable, life is the only blessing which man possesses[.
men cease
Man is free, but his freedom ceases when he has no faith in it[.
appreciate purpose stories
I have always had such sincere love for truth, that I have often begun by telling stories for the purpose of getting truth to enter the heads of those who could not appreciate its charms.
victory fool trouble
[W]e avenge intelligence when we deceive a fool, and the victory is worth the trouble[.
sports squash youth
They are the follies inherent to youth; I make sport of them, and, if you are kind, you will not yourself refuse them a good-natured smile.
beautiful artist drawing
I saw that everything famous and beautiful in the world, if we judge by the descriptions and drawings of writers and artists, always loses when we go to see it and examine it closely.
art fall men
My errors will point to thinking men the various roads, and will teach them the great art of treading on the brink of the precipice without falling into it.
victory fool dupes
We avenge intellect when we dupe a fool, and it is a victory not to be despised for a fool is covered with steel and it is often very hard to find his vulnerable part.