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.”

“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.”

“Hatred, in the course of time, kills the unhappy wretch who delights in nursing it in his bosom.”

“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.”

“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.”

“Desires are but pain and torment, and enjoyment is sweet because it delivers us from them.”

“We avenge intellect when we dupe a fool, and it is a victory not to be despised for a fool is covered with steel and it is often very hard to find his vulnerable part.”

“The mind of a human being is formed only of comparisons made in order to examine analogies, and therefore cannot precede the existence of memory.”

“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.”

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

“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.”

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

“In fact, to gull a fool seems to me an exploit worthy of a witty man.”

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

“ללא דיבורים, ההנאה שבאהבה קטנה לפחות בשני שלישים.”

“אלה האומרים כי החיים מלאים צרות, רוצים לומר כי החיים הם צרה; אם החיים הם צרה, המוות הוא אושר.”

“מהי אהבה? מחלה שבה הגבר חולה בכל גיל.”

“מיהו הגבר האוהב שאינו מדמיין בנפשו כי נושאת אהבתו חייבת למצוא חן בעיני העולם כולו?”

“הצרפתים מקנאים במאהבותיהם, ולעולם לא בנשותיהם.”

“כאשר המדובר בנערה יפה די ברגע אחד כדי לגלות זאת.”