Giacomo Casanova Quotes

Be the flame, not the moth.

The sweetest pleasures are those which are hardest to be won.

one who makes no mistakes makes nothing

A man who makes known his love by words is a fool.

Real love is the love that sometimes arises after sensual pleasure: if it does, it is immortal; the other kind inevitably goes stale, for it lies in mere fantasy.

Nobody can deprive me of the fact that I had a good time.

Love is three quarters curiosity.

Praise the beautiful for their intelligence and the intelligent for their beauty.

I don't conquer, I submit.

To Kiss : An attempt to absorb the essence of the other person.

After all, a beautiful woman without a mind of her own leaves her lover with no resource after he had physically enjoyed her charms.

Whether happy or unhappy, life is the only treasure man possesses.

I have loved women even to madness, but I have always loved liberty better.

There is no such thing as destiny. We ourselves shape our lives.

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.

Beauty without wit offers nothing but the enjoyment of its material charms, whilst witty ugliness captivates by the charms of the mind, and at last fulfils all the desires of the man it has captivated.

The man who seeks to educate himself must first read and then travel in order to correct what he has learned.

The thing is to dazzle

Cultivating whatever gave pleasure to my senses was always the chief business of my life; I have never found any occupation more important. Feeling that I was born for the sex opposite mine, I have always loved it and done all that I could to make myself loved by it. I have also been extravagantly fond of good food and irresistibly drawn by anything which could excite curiosity.

We ourselve are the authors of almost all our woes and griefs, of which we so unreasonably complain.

When you fool a fool you strike a blow for intelligence.

Cheating is a sin, but honest cunning is simply prudence. It is a virtue. To be sure, it has a likeness to roguery, but that cannot be helped. He who has not learned to practice it is a fool.

If I had married a woman intelligent enough to guide me, to rule me without my feeling that I was ruled, I should have taken good care of my money, I should have had children, and I should not be, as now I am, alone in the world and possessing nothing.

I often had no scruples about deceiving nitwits and scoundrels and fools when I found it necessary. ...We avenge intelligence when we deceive a fool, and... deceiving a fool is an exploit worthy of an intelligent man. What has infused my very blood with an unconquerable hatred of the whole tribe of fools from the day of my birth is that I become a fool myself when I am in their company.

Happy are those lovers who, when their senses require rest, can fall back upon the intellectual enjoyments afforded by the mind! Sweet sleep then comes, and lasts until the body has recovered its general harmony. On awaking, the senses are again active and always ready to resume their action.