History of My Life (Volume 2), by Giacomo Casanova, translated by Willard R. Trask.#

A ridiculous story:#

"Yes, Captain, I am a surgeon. I have lived in this city fro twenty years in poverty, [...]. I have earned a great deal of money, I have invested it to advantage, and it is you---God bless you!---who have made me rich."

"How"

"Here is the whole brief story. You communicated a certain love-token to Don Gerolamo's housekeeper, who gave it to a friend, who honorably shared it with his wife. She in turn gave it to a libertine, who distributed it so effectively that in less than a month I had fifty patients under my care, all of whom I cured, of course for a proper fee. I still have a few patients, but within a month I shall have none, for the disease has died out. When I saw you I could not but rejoice. I saw you as a bird of good omen. Can I hope that you will remain here for a few days and give the disease a fresh start?" [p. 63]

On Love:#

What is love? For all that I have read every word that certain self-styled sages have written concerning its nature, for all that I have philosophized on it myself as I have grown older, I will never admit that it is either a trifle or a vanity of vanities. It is a kind of madness over which philosophy has no power; a sickness to which man is prone at every time of life and which is incurable if it strikes in old age. Inexpressible love! God of nature! Bitterness than which nothing is sweeter, sweetness than which nothing is more bitter! Divine monster which can only be defined by paradoxes! [p. 152]