The Story of My Life Quotes

“The sweetest pleasures are those which are hardest to be won.”
― Casanova, The Story of My Life

“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.”
― Giacomo Casanova, The Story of My Life

“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 Girolamo Casanova, Geschichte Meines Lebens

“Desires are but pain and torment, and enjoyment is sweet because it delivers us from them.”
― Giacomo Casanova, The Story of My Life

“There is no such thing as a perfectly happy or perfectly unhappy man in the world. One has more happiness in his life and another more unhappiness, and the same circumstance may produce widely different effects on individuals of different temperaments.”
― Giacomo Casanova, The Story of My Life

“I am writing My Life so that I may laugh at myself, and I am succeeding.”
― Giacomo Casanova, The Story of My Life

“My great treasure is that I am my own master, that I am not dependent upon anyone, and that I am not afraid of misfortunes.”
― Giacomo Casanova, The Story of My Life

“Alcuni dicono che la vita è solo un insieme di sventure; in altre parole, che la vita è una sventura; ma se la vita è una sventura, la morte deve essere sicuramente il contrario, cioè una fortuna, dato che la morte è l'opposto della vita. Questa conclusione sembrerebbe inevitabile. Ma coloro che parlano così sono sicuramente malati o poveri, fossero in buona salute, avessero la borsa ben fornita, l'allegria in cuore, delle Cecilie, delle Marine e la speranza di altre cose ancor migliori, allora cambierebbero sicuramente parere. Io li considero una razza di pessimisti che si alligna solo tra i filosofi spiantati e i teologhi bricconi e atrabiliari. Se il piacere esiste e lo si può godere solo da vivi, la vita è una fortuna.”
― Giacomo Casanova, Memorie scritte da lui medesimo

“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).”
― Casanova, The Complete Memoirs of Casanova (Unexpurgated Edition)

“Feeling that I was born for the opposite sex, I have always loved it, and I have done everything I could to make myself beloved by it.”
― Giacomo Casanova, The Story of My Life

“Rhetoric makes use of nature’s secrets in the same way as painters who try to imitate it: their most beautiful work is false.”
― Giacomo Casanova, The Story of My Life

“Happiness is gained by complying with the duties of whatever condition of life one is in, and you must constrain yourself to rise to that exalted station in which destiny has placed you.”
― Giacomo Casanova, The Memoirs of Jacques Casanova de Seingalt: Complete

“In fact, I do not believe there is an honest man alive without some pretension,”
― Giacomo Casanova, THE MEMOIRS OF CASANOVA - All 6 Volumes in One Premium Illustrated Edition: The Incredible Life of Giacomo Casanova – Lover, Spy, Actor, Clergymen, Officer & Brilliant Con Artist

“faith must believe without discussion, and the stronger it is, the more it keeps silent.”
― Giacomo Casanova, THE MEMOIRS OF CASANOVA - All 6 Volumes in One Premium Illustrated Edition: The Incredible Life of Giacomo Casanova – Lover, Spy, Actor, Clergymen, Officer & Brilliant Con Artist

“I always feel the greatest bliss when I recollect those I have caught in my snares, for they generally are insolent, and so self-conceited that they challenge wit. 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. In fact, to gull a fool seems to me an exploit worthy of a witty man.”
― Giacomo Casanova, THE MEMOIRS OF CASANOVA - All 6 Volumes in One Premium Illustrated Edition: The Incredible Life of Giacomo Casanova – Lover, Spy, Actor, Clergymen, Officer & Brilliant Con Artist

“Happy are those who know how to obtain pleasures without injury to anyone; insane are those who fancy that the Almighty can enjoy the sufferings, the pains, the fasts and abstinences which they offer to Him as a sacrifice,”
― Giacomo Casanova, The Complete Memoirs of Jacques Casanova de Seingalt

“THE MAN WHO MAKES NO MISTAKES USUALLY MAKES NOTHING”
― Casanova, The Complete Memoirs of Casanova (Unexpurgated Edition)

“La sofferenza è insita nella natura umana; ma non soffriamo mai, o almeno molto di rado, senza nutrire la speranza della guarigione; e la speranza è un piacere. Se talvolta l'uomo soffre senza speranza di guarire, la sicurezza matematica che l'esistenza finirà deve essere un piacere; perchè, nella peggiore delle ipotesi, la morte sarà un sonno pesante, durante il quale saremo consolati da sogni felici, oppure la perdita della conoscenza; ma quando godiamo, la riflessione che il nostro godimento sarà seguito dalla sofferenza non viene mai a turbarci. Il piacere, quindi, mentre ce lo procuriamo, è sempre puro; il dolore è sempre temperato.
[...]
L'uomo saggio, credetemi, non potrà mai essere completamente infelice; sono propenso a credere al mio amico Orazio, il quale afferma che il saggio è sempre felice: nisi quum pituita molesta est. Ma qual è il mortale che ha sempre il catarro?”
― Giacomo Casanova, Memorie scritte da lui medesimo

“Those who do not believe that a woman can make a man happy through the twenty-four hours of the day have never possessed a woman like Henriette. The happiness which filled me, if I can express it in that manner, was much greater when I conversed with her even than when I held her in my arms. She had read much, she had great tact, and her taste was naturally excellent; her judgment was sane, and, without being learned, she could argue like a mathematician, easily and without pretension, and in everything she had that natural grace which is so charming. She never tried to be witty when she said something of importance, but accompanied her words with a smile which imparted to them an appearance of trifling, and brought them within the understanding of all. In that way she would give intelligence even to those who had none, and she won every heart. Beauty without wit offers love nothing but the material enjoyment of its physical charms, whilst witty ugliness captivates by the charms of the mind, and at last fulfils all the desires of the man it has captivated.”
― Giacomo Casanova, The Story of My Life

“We avenge intelligence when we deceive a fool.”
― Jacques Casanova De Seingalt, The Memoires of Casanova Volume I

“If pleasure does exist, and if life is necessary to enjoy pleasure, then life is happiness. There are misfortunes, as I know by experience; but the very existence of such misfortunes proves that the sum-total of happiness is greater. Because a few thorns are to be found in a basket full of roses, is the existence of those beautiful flowers to be denied? No; it is a slander to deny that life is happiness. When I am in a dark room, it pleases me greatly to see through a window an immense horizon before me.”
― Giacomo Casanova, The Memoirs of Casanova

“If natural philosophy does not teach us the remedies for many diseases, it furnishes us at least with certain means to contract them.”
― Casanova, The Memoirs of Jacques Casanova de Seingalt 1725 - 1798

“Death is a monster that chases the rapt spectator from the theater before the play he is watching with infinite interest has ended.”
― Giacomo Casanova, The Story of My Life

“Happy are those who know how to obtain pleasures without injury to anyone; insane are those who fancy that the Almighty can enjoy the sufferings, the pains, the fasts and abstinences which they offer to Him as a sacrifice, and that His love is granted only to those who tax themselves so foolishly.”
― Giacomo Casanova, THE MEMOIRS OF CASANOVA - All 6 Volumes in One Premium Illustrated Edition: The Incredible Life of Giacomo Casanova – Lover, Spy, Actor, Clergymen, Officer & Brilliant Con Artist

“The errors caused by temperament are not to be corrected, because our temperament is perfectly independent of our strength: it is not the case with our character. 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. I”
― Giacomo Casanova, THE MEMOIRS OF CASANOVA - All 6 Volumes in One Premium Illustrated Edition: The Incredible Life of Giacomo Casanova – Lover, Spy, Actor, Clergymen, Officer & Brilliant Con Artist

“I am of opinion that the only foreboding in which man can have any sort of faith is the one which forbodes evil, because it comes from the mind, while a presentiment of happiness has its origin in the heart, and the heart is a fool worthy of reckoning foolishly upon fickle fortune.”
― Giacomo Casanova, THE MEMOIRS OF CASANOVA - All 6 Volumes in One Premium Illustrated Edition: The Incredible Life of Giacomo Casanova – Lover, Spy, Actor, Clergymen, Officer & Brilliant Con Artist

“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.”
― Casanova, The Memoirs of Jacques Casanova de Seingalt 1725 - 1798

“I feared if I spoke I would no longer be happy, or would be so in a way that I did not want to be, and so I surrendered myself body and soul to the joy that was inundating my whole being and that I could see was mutual. My happiness so overwhelmed my senses that it reached the point where nature, drowning in supreme pleasure, exhausts itself. For the space of a minute I remained motionless, in intellectual contemplation and adoration of my own apotheosis.

Sight and touch, which I had thought must be the main characters in this drama, played only secondary roles. My eyes desired no greater happiness than to remain fixed on the face of the creature charming them, while my touch, limited to my fingertips, feared to move, since it could conceive of no greater sensation.”
― Casanova, The Memoirs of Jacques Casanova de Seingalt 1725 - 1798

“Ein solches Glück hatte ich stets bis zu meinem fünfzigsten Lebensjahr, wenn ich in Bedrängnis geriet. Sobald ich rechtschaffene Leute fand, die sich für die Geschichte des Unglücks interessierten, das mich bedrückte, und ich sie ihnen erzählte, flösste ich ihnen jene Freundschaft ein, die nötig war, um sie mir günstig und hilfreich zu stimmen. Der Kunstgriff, den ich dabei anwandte, bestand darin, dass ich die Sache wahrheitsgetreu erzählte, ohne gewisse Einzelheiten auszulassen, zu deren Erwähnung man Mut braucht. Darin liegt das ganze Geheimnis, und wenige wissen es anzuwenden, weil die Menschheit zum grössten Teil aus Feiglingen besteht; ich weiss aus Erfahrung, dass die Wahrheit ein Talisman ist, dessen Zauberkräfte nie versagen, vorausgesetzt, dass man sie nicht an Spitzbuben verschwendet. Ich glaube, wer seine Schuld einem gerechten Richter zu gestehen wagt, wird leichter freigesprochen als ein Unschuldiger, der Ausflüchte sucht.”
― Giacomo Casanova, The Story of My Life

“Death is a monster which turns away from the great theatre an attentive hearer before the end of the play which deeply interests him, and this is reason enough to hate it. All”
― Giacomo Casanova, THE MEMOIRS OF CASANOVA - All 6 Volumes in One Premium Illustrated Edition: The Incredible Life of Giacomo Casanova – Lover, Spy, Actor, Clergymen, Officer & Brilliant Con Artist