40 quotes
You will be amused when you see that I have more than once deceived without the slightest qualm of conscience, both knaves and fools.
Memoirs of J. Casanova de Seingalt (1894)
Woman is like a book, which, good or bad, must at first please us by the frontispiece.
Whether happy or unhappy, life is the only treasure man possesses[.]
Happy or unhappy, life is the only treasure which man possesses[.]
Man is free, but his freedom ceases when he has no faith in it[.]
We avenge intellect when we dupe a fool, and it is a victory not to be despised[.]
Man is a free agent; but he is not free if he does not believe it[.]
Man is free; but not unless he believes he is[.]
Great God, and you witnesses of my death, I have lived as a philosopher, and I die as a Christian.
When a sonnet is mediocre it is bad, for it should be sublime.
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.
Reason is a particle of the Creator's divinity. When we use it with a spirit of humility and justice we are certain to please the Giver of that precious gift.
Memoirs of J. Casanova de Seingalt (1894)
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.
Memoirs of J. Casanova de Seingalt (1894)
Nothing is so catching as the plague; now, fanaticism, no matter of what nature, is only the plague of the human mind.
Memoirs of J. Casanova de Seingalt (1894)
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.
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.
I have always loved truth so passionately that I have often resorted to lying as a way of first introducing it into minds which were ignorant of its charms.
Should anyone bring against me an accusation of sensuality he would be wrong, for all the fierceness of my senses never caused me to neglect any of my duties.
Memoirs of J. Casanova de Seingalt (1894)
One of the advantages of a great sorrow is that nothing else seems painful.
Memoirs of J. Casanova de Seingalt (1894)
Worthy or not, my life is my subject, and my subject is my life.
Memoirs of J. Casanova de Seingalt (1894)