“The sweetest pleasures are those which are hardest to be won.”
“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.”
“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.”
“Desires are but pain and torment, and enjoyment is sweet because it delivers us from them.”
“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.”
“I am writing My Life so that I may laugh at myself, and I am succeeding.”
“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.”
“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).”
“THE MAN WHO MAKES NO MISTAKES USUALLY MAKES NOTHING”
“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?”
“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.”
“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,”
“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.”
“faith must believe without discussion, and the stronger it is, the more it keeps silent.”
“Rhetoric makes use of nature’s secrets in the same way as painters who try to imitate it: their most beautiful work is false.”
“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”
“I have had friends who have acted kindly towards me, and it has been my good fortune to have it in my power to give them substantial proofs of my gratitude.”
“Hatred, in the course of time, kills the unhappy wretch who delights in nursing it in his bosom. Should”
“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.”
“In fact, I do not believe there is an honest man alive without some pretension,”
“Oh, cruel ennui! It must be by mistake that those who have invented the torments of hell have forgotten to ascribe thee the first place among them.”
“I hate death; for, happy or miserable, life is the only blessing which man possesses, and those who do not love it are unworthy of it. If we prefer honour to life, it is because life is blighted by infamy; and if, in the alternative, man sometimes throws away his life, philosophy must remain silent. Oh,”
“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”
“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”
“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.”
“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.”
“Giyinmek için kalktığımda üzerimi bir keyifsizlik kaplamıştı. Şehvet ve orgazm geçmişti. Film bitip izleyiciler toplu halde çıkmaya başladığında, tüm duyduğunuz, eski halini koltukların tıkırtısı, ayak sesleri, temizlenen boğazlardır. Karakterler, öykü ve müzik yok olmuştur. Ama Tian Tian'ın yüzünün beynimde gidiş gelişi bir türlü yok olmayacaktır.”
“Mummy’s coming home late tonight. It’ll be just we guys, so we can get drunk and watch porn.”
“Beck behaved himself, though it was really difficult, especially during the slow dances when they were so tantalizingly close. He savoured the feel of her against his body, the light scent of her perfume, the in her eyes that told him he was the center of her universe. It was a new and totally overwhelming experience.”
“Trust one fool to see no flaws in another!”
“But the voices of fear and discontent are always the loudest...”
BookQuoters is a community of passionate readers who enjoy sharing the most meaningful, memorable and interesting quotes from great books. As the world communicates more and more via texts, memes and sound bytes, short but profound quotes from books have become more relevant and important. For some of us a quote becomes a mantra, a goal or a philosophy by which we live. For all of us, quotes are a great way to remember a book and to carry with us the author’s best ideas.
We thoughtfully gather quotes from our favorite books, both classic and current, and choose the ones that are most thought-provoking. Each quote represents a book that is interesting, well written and has potential to enhance the reader’s life. We also accept submissions from our visitors and will select the quotes we feel are most appealing to the BookQuoters community.
Founded in 2023, BookQuoters has quickly become a large and vibrant community of people who share an affinity for books. Books are seen by some as a throwback to a previous world; conversely, gleaning the main ideas of a book via a quote or a quick summary is typical of the Information Age but is a habit disdained by some diehard readers. We feel that we have the best of both worlds at BookQuoters; we read books cover-to-cover but offer you some of the highlights. We hope you’ll join us.