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 his purse is well filled Accepted the compliment for what it was worth Accomplice of the slanderer Advantages of a great sorrow is that nothing 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 be accompanied by vanity Anger and reason do not belong to the same family Angry man always thinks himself right At my age I could not be allowed to have any opinions Augurs could never look at each other without laughing Awkward or miserly, and therefore unworthy of love Axiom that "neglected right is lost right" Beauty is the only unpardonable offence in your eyes Beauty without wit offers love nothing Bed is a capital place to get an appetite Best plan in this world is to be astonished at nothing Beware of the man of one book Calumnies are easy to utter but hard to refute Cherishing my grief Clever man deceives by telling the truth Commissaries of Chastity Confession Contempt of life Could tell a good story without laughing Criticism only grazed the skin and never wounded deeply Delights are in proportion to the privations we have suffered Desire is only kept alive by being denied Desire to make a great fuss like a great man Despair which is not without some sweetness Despised ignoramus becomes an enemy Diminish the tale of your years instead of 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 and sweet ignorance Economy in pleasure is not to my taste Emotion is infectious Essence of freedom consists in thinking you have it Everything hung from an if Exercise their reason to avoid the misfortunes which they fear Fanaticism, no matter of what nature, is only the plague Fatal desire for luxury and empty show spoils all Favourite passion has always been vengeance First motive is always self-interest Foolish enough to write the truth For in the night, you know, all cats are grey For is love anything else than a kind of curiosity? Fortune flouts old age Found him greater at a distance than close at hand Gave the Cardinal de Rohan the famous necklace Girl who gave nothing must take nothing Give yourself up to whatever fate offers to you, Government ought never to destroy ancient customs abruptly Groans, and prayers, and blasphemies Happiness is purely a creature of the imagination Happiness is not lasting--nor is man Happy or unhappy from a merely cursory inspection Happy ignorance! Happy age when one's inexperience is one's sole misfortune Hasty verses are apt to sacrifice wit to rhyme He won't be uneasy--he is a philosopher Hobbes: of two evils choose the least