Giacomo Casanova

I have met with some of them - very honest fellows, who, with all their stupidity, had a kind of intelligence and an upright good sense, which cannot be the characteristics of fools. ”

By recollecting the pleasures I have had formerly, I renew them, I enjoy them a second time, while I laugh at the remembrance of troubles now past, and which I no longer feel. ”

You will be amused when you see that I have more than once deceived without the slightest qualm of conscience, both knaves and fools. ”

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

Love is three quarters curiosity. ”

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. ”

Man is free; yet we must not suppose that he is at liberty to do everything he pleases, for he becomes a slave the moment he allows his actions to be ruled by passion. ”

As to the deceit perpetrated upon women, let it pass, for, when love is in the way, men and women as a general rule dupe each other. ”

Marriage is the tomb of love. ”

Worthy or not, my life is my subject, and my subject is my life. ”