CASANOVA QUOTES AND IMAGES FROM THE MEMOIRS OF CASANOVA THE MEMOIRS OF CASANOVA By Jacques Casanova de Seingalt A man never argues well except when hispurse is well filled Accepted the compliment for what it wasworth Accomplice of the slanderer Advantages of a great sorrow is thatnothing else seems painful Age, that cruel and unavoidable disease All women, dear Leah are for sale All-powerful lever, gold Alms given in public are sure to beaccompanied by vanity Anger and reason do not belong to thesame family Angry man always thinks himself right At my age I could not be allowed tohave any opinions Augurs could never look at each otherwithout laughing Awkward or miserly, and thereforeunworthy of love Axiom that "neglected right is lostright" Beauty is the only unpardonable offencein your eyes Beauty without wit offers love nothing Bed is a capital place to get anappetite Best plan in this world is to beastonished at nothing Beware of the man of one book Calumnies are easy to utter but hard torefute Cherishing my grief Clever man deceives by telling thetruth Commissaries of Chastity Confession Contempt of life Could tell a good story withoutlaughing Criticism only grazed the skin andnever wounded deeply Delights are in proportion to theprivations we have suffered Desire is only kept alive by beingdenied Desire to make a great fuss like agreat man Despair which is not without somesweetness Despised ignoramus becomes an enemy Diminish the tale of your years insteadof increasing it Distance is relative Divinities--novelty and singularity Do not mind people believing anything, provided it is not true Do their duty, and to live in peace andsweet ignorance Economy in pleasure is not to my taste Emotion is infectious Essence of freedom consists in thinkingyou have it Everything hung from an if Exercise their reason to avoid themisfortunes which they fear Fanaticism, no matter of what nature, is only the plague Fatal desire for luxury and empty showspoils all Favourite passion has always beenvengeance First motive is always self-interest Foolish enough to write the truth For in the night, you know, all catsare grey For is love anything else than a kindof curiosity? Fortune flouts old age Found him greater at a distance thanclose at hand Gave the Cardinal de Rohan the famousnecklace Girl who gave nothing must take nothing Give yourself up to whatever fateoffers to you, Government ought never to destroyancient customs abruptly Groans, and prayers, and blasphemies Happiness is purely a creature of theimagination Happiness is not lasting--nor is man Happy or unhappy from a merely cursoryinspection Happy ignorance! Happy age when one's inexperience isone's sole misfortune Hasty verses are apt to sacrifice witto rhyme He won't be uneasy--he is a philosopher Hobbes: of two evils choose the least Honest old man will not believe in theexistence of rascals Idle questions which are commonlyaddressed to a traveller If this and if that, and every other if If I could live my life over again If history did not lie Ignorance is bliss Ignorant, who talk about everythingright or wrong Imagine that what they feel themselvesothers must feel It is only fools who complain It's too much for honour and too littlefor love Jealousy leads to anger, and anger goesa long way Knowing that he would not be regrettedafter his death Last thing which we learn in alllanguages is wit Laugh out of season Let not thy right hand know what thyleft hand doeth Lie a sufficient number of times, oneends by believing it Light come, light go Love always makes men selfish Look on everything we don't possess asa superfluity Love fills our minds with idle visions Love makes no conditions Made a point of forgetting everythingunpleasant Made a parade of his Atheism Man needs so little to console him orto soothe his grief Marriage without enjoyment is a thornwithout roses Marriage state, for which I felt I hadno vocation Married a rich wife, he repented ofhaving married at all Mere beauty does not go for much Most trifling services are assessed atthe highest rates My spirit and my desires are as youngas ever My time was too short to write solittle Mystical insinuations Negligent attire Never to pass an opinion on any subject Never wearied himself with too muchthinking Nobody read his books, but everybodyagreed he was learned 'Non' is equal to giving the lie Now I am too old to begin curing myself Obscenity disgusts, and never givespleasure Oh! wonderful power of self-delusion One never knows enough Owed all its merits to antithesis andparadox Pardonable weakness, most of us prefer"mine" to "thine" Passing infidelity, but not inconstancy Passion and prejudice cannot reason People did not want to know things asthey truly were People want to know everything, andthey invent Pigmies mimicking a giant Pity to sell cheaply what would have tobe replaced dearly Pleasures are realities, though all toofleeting Pope, whom no Roman can believe to beinfallible Post-masters Prejudices which had the sanction ofthe law Pride is the daughter of folly Privately indulged in every luxury thathe forbade to others Privilege of a nursing mother Promising everlasting constancy Proud nation, at once so great and solittle Quacks Rather be your debtor than for you tobe mine Read when I am gone Reading innumerable follies one findswritten in such places Repentance for a good deed Reproached by his wife for the money hehad expended Rid of our vices more easily than ofour follies Rome the holy, which thus strives tomake all men pederasts Rumour is only good to amuse fools Sad symptom of misery which is called ayawn Sadness is a disease which gives thedeath-blow to affection Scold and then forgive Scrupulously careful not to cheat youin small things Seldom praised and never blamed Selfishness, then, the universal motorof our actions? Shewed his contempt by saying nothing Sin concealed is half pardoned Sleep--the very likeness ofnon-existence Snatching from poor mortal man thedelusions Soften the hardships of the slow butcertain passage to the grave Stupid servant is more dangerous than abad one 'Sublata lucerna nullum discrimen interfeminas' Submissive gaze of a captive whoglories in his chain Surface is always the first to interest Talent of never appearing to be alearned man Taste and feeling Tell me whether that contempt of liferenders you worthy of it There is no cure for death There's time enough for that Time that is given to enjoyment isnever lost Time that destroys marble and brassdestroys also the very memory Time is a great teacher Timidity is often another word forstupidity To know ill is worse than not to knowat all Vengeance is a divine pleasure Verses which, like parasites, stealinto a funeral oration Victims of their good faith Wash their dirty linen in private What is love? When we can feel pity, we love nolonger When one is in an ill humour, everything is fuel for the fire Whims of the mob and the fancies of theRepublic Wife worthy of being a mistress Wiser if they were less witty Wish is father to the thought Wit cannot stand before stupidity Woman has in her tears a weapon Women are always as old as they look Women would be either tyrants or slaves Women often do the most idiotic thingsout of sheer obstinacy World of memories, without a presentand without a future Would like to shape the laws accordingto their needs Wretch treats me so kindly that I lovehim more and more