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Cultivating Whatever Gave Pleasure To My Senses Was Always The Chief Business Of My Life; I Have Never Found Any Occupation More Important. Feeling That I Was Born For The Sex Opposite Mine, I Have Always Loved It And Done All That I Could To Make Myself Loved By It. I Have Also Been Extravagantly Fond Of Good Food And Irresistibly Drawn By Anything Which Could Excite Curiosity.

-Giacomo Casanova

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Cultivating Whatever Gave Pleasure

Giacomo Casanova

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Cultivating Whatever Gave Pleasure To My Senses Was Always The Chief Business Of My Life; I Have Never Found Any Occupation More Important. Feeling That I Was Born For The Sex Opposite Mine, I Have Always Loved It And Done All That I Could To Make Myself Loved By It. I Have Also Been Extravagantly Fond Of Good Food And Irresistibly Drawn By Anything Which Could Excite Curiosity.

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There Is No Such Thing As Destiny. We Ourselves Shape Our Lives.

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We Avenge Intelligence When We Deceive A Fool, And The Victory Is Worth The Trouble

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.

Hatred, In The Course Of Time, Kills The Unhappy Wretch Who Delights In Nursing It In His Bosom.

Happy Are Those Lovers Who, When Their Senses Require Rest, Can Fall Back Upon The Intellectual Enjoyments Afforded By The Mind! Sweet Sleep Then Comes, And Lasts Until The Body Has Recovered Its General Harmony. On Awaking, The Senses Are Again Active And Always Ready To Resume Their Action.

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To Lead A Blameless Life You Must Curb Your Passions , And Whatever Misfortune May Befall You Cannot Be Ascribed By Anyone To Want Of Good Luck, Or Attributed To Fate; These Words Are Devoid Of Sense, And All Fault Will Rightly Fall On Your Own Head.

Man Is Free; But Not Unless He Believes He Is[.]

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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.

Love Is A Great Poet, Its Resources Are Inexhaustible, But If The End It Has In View Is Not Obtained, It Feels Weary And Remains Silent.

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You Will Be Amused When You See That I Have More Than Once Deceived Without The Slightest Qualm Of Conscience, Both Knaves And Fools.

The Pleasure I Gave My Lovers Was A Four Fifth Of The Pleasure I Experienced.

Thence, I Suppose, My Natural Disposition To Make Fresh Acquaintances, And To Break With Them So Readily, Although Always For A Good Reason, And Never Through Mere Fickleness.

Praise The Beautiful For Their Intelligence And The Intelligent For Their Beauty.

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They Are The Follies Inherent To Youth; I Make Sport Of Them, And, If You Are Kind, You Will Not Yourself Refuse Them A Good-natured Smile.

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Man Is Free, But His Freedom Ceases When He Has No Faith In It[.

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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.

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Man Is Free, But His Freedom Ceases When He Has No Faith In It; And The Greater Power He Ascribes To Faith, The More He Deprives Himself Of That Power Which God Has Given To Him When He Endowed Him With The Gift Of Reason.

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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.

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