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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.

— Giacomo Casanova Memoirs of J. Casanova de Seingalt (1894)

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Slavery

More quotes by Giacomo Casanova

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[.]

All Giacomo Casanova quotes →

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Attribution

Quote text and notes from Wikiquote: Giacomo Casanova (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.