11 Quotes by Casanova

Hope is nothing but a deceitful flatterer accepted by reason only because it is often in need of palliatives.

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

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

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 Preface).

The philosopher is a person who refuses no pleasures which do not produce greater sorrows, and who knows how to create new ones.

He introduced me to a Jesuit whom he kept in his employ, and said that although his name was Adam, he was not the first man.

Enjoy the present, bid defiance to the future, laugh at all those reasonable beings who exercise their reason to avoid the misfortunes which they fear, destroying at the same time the pleasure that they might enjoy.

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

To lead a blameless life you must curb your passions , and whatever misfortune may befall you cannot be ascribed by anyone to want of good luck, or attributed to fate; these words are devoid of sense, and all fault will rightly fall on your own head.