Quotes by Giacomo Casanova

About Giacomo Casanova:

Giacomo Girolamo Casanova is regarded as one of the most authentic sources of the customs and norms of European social life during the 18th century.
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They [his readers, whom he asks to be his friends] will find that 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” (Casanova, p.34, Vol 1 Pr...

Giacomo Casanova

As for myself, I always willingly acknowledge my own self as the principal cause of every good and of every evil which may befall me; therefore, I have always found myself capable of being my own pupil, and ready to love my teacher.

Giacomo Casanova

The history of my life must begin by the earliest circumstance which my memory can evoke; it will therefore commence when I had attained the age of eight years and four months.

Giacomo Casanova

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.

Giacomo Casanova

I always made my food congenial to my constitution, and my health was always excellent.

Giacomo Casanova

I learned very early that our health is always impaired by some excess either of food or abstinence, and I never had any physician except myself.

Giacomo Casanova

It is only necessary to have courage, for strength without self-confidence is useless.

Giacomo Casanova

Should I perchance still feel after my death, I would no longer have any doubt, but I would most certainly give the lie to anyone asserting before me that I was dead.

Giacomo Casanova

I am bound to add that the excess in too little has ever proved in me more dangerous than the excess in too much; the last may cause indigestion, but the first causes death.

Giacomo Casanova

Heart and head are the constituent parts of character; temperament has almost nothing to do with it, and, therefore, character is dependent upon education, and is susceptible of being corrected and improved.

Giacomo Casanova

I have had friends who have acted kindly towards me, and it has been my good fortune to have it in my power to give them substantial proofs of my gratitude.

Giacomo Casanova

I have met with some of them - very honest fellows, who, with all their stupidity, had a kind of intelligence and an upright good sense, which cannot be the characteristics of fools.

Giacomo Casanova

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.

Giacomo Casanova

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.

Giacomo Casanova

I leave to others the decision as to the good or evil tendencies of my character, but such as it is it shines upon my countenance, and there it can easily be detected by any physiognomist.

Giacomo Casanova

Thence, I suppose, my natural disposition to make fresh acquaintances, and to break with them so readily, although always for a good reason, and never through mere fickleness.

Giacomo Casanova

For my future I have no concern, and as a true philosopher, I never would have any, for I know not what it may be: as a Christian, on the other hand, faith must believe without discussion, and the stronger it is, the more it keeps silent.

Giacomo Casanova

God ceases to be God only for those who can admit the possibility of His non-existence, and that conception is in itself the most severe punishment they can suffer.

Giacomo Casanova

I have often met with happiness after some imprudent step which ought to have brought ruin upon me, and although passing a vote of censure upon myself I would thank God for his mercy.

Giacomo Casanova

God, great principle of all minor principles, God, who is Himself without a principle, could not conceive Himself, if, in order to do it, He required to know His own principle.

Giacomo Casanova

Author Bio

  • NameGiacomo Casanova
  • DescriptionItalian adventurer and author from the Republic of Venice
  • BornJune 4, 1725
  • DiedJune 4, 1798
  • CountryItaly
  • ProfessionWriter; Poet; Librarian; Banker; Novelist
  • WorksHistoire De Ma Vie; Story Of My Flight From The Prisons Of The Venetian Republic
  • AwardsKnight Of The Golden Spur; Order Of The Golden Spur