13 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)
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)
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)
My success and my misfortunes, the bright and the dark days I have gone through, everything has proved to me that in this world, either physical or moral, good comes out of evil just as well as evil comes out of good.
Memoirs of J. Casanova de Seingalt (1894)
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.
Memoirs of J. Casanova de Seingalt (1894)
Economy in pleasure is not to my taste.
Memoirs of J. Casanova de Seingalt (1894)
The chief business of my life has always been to indulge my senses; I never knew anything of greater importance. I felt myself born for the fair sex, I have ever loved it dearly, and I have been loved by it as often and as much as I could.
Memoirs of J. Casanova de Seingalt (1894)
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?
Memoirs of J. Casanova de Seingalt (1894)
Man is free; yet we must not suppose that he is at liberty to do everything he pleases, for he becomes a slave the moment he allows his actions to be ruled by passion. The man who has sufficient power over himself to wait until his nature has recovered its even balance is the truly wise man, but such beings are seldom met with.
Memoirs of J. Casanova de Seingalt (1894)