- Giacomo Casanova: A man who never speaks ill of women does not love them. For to understand them and to love them one must suffer at their hands. Then and only then can you find happiness at the lips of your beloved.
- Giacomo Casanova: It's too late. I've fallen hopelessly in love with you. That unearthly beauty of yours appeals to the artist in me. I would like to mold you like clay in my hands, like the statue I first took you to be. I will be your Pygmalion, giving life to my own creation. With my flame I will ignite your flesh. The bright fire of life would glow within you.
- Giacomo Casanova: I shall be polite.
- Sister Maddalena: I hope not. Since when did two lovers, in the fury of their passion, think about being polite?
- Giacomo Casanova: Never is man plunged so deeply into the abyss, then hurled no less precipitously up towards him who is perfection, as at that translucent instant when the essence of his manhood, joins with and touches the root of the opposite sex.
- Giacomo Casanova: Who is this girl, I asked myself. What is her relationship with this Hungarian who's old enough to be her father? Does she have a husband in Parma? Is she seeking new lovers? Other pleasures?
- Madame D'Urfé: [describing the great work that she wants Casanova to help her with] I shall die, and in the act of dying, I shall be transformed into a man, a man who will live forever! But I can only achieve this if I'm impregnated by an adept of the same pyramidal sign as mine. At the moment of birth, my soul will pass into the baby boy. In this way, I shall die as a woman, and be reborn as a man, a man who will live for all eternity! And you, unquestionably, are the one who has been sent to help me in this momentous undertaking, this great work!
- Giacomo Casanova: Do you know that you frightened me? You're so pale, I thought that you were Diana, the moon goddess, become mortal.
- Marquis Du Bois: There is an ancient proverb which says, 'What is lighter than a feather? Dust. Lighter than dust? The wind. Lighter than the wind? Woman. Lighter than woman? Nothing.'
- Giacomo Casanova: For a beautiful woman, even one soul is more than sufficient, provided that it blends with the man's in perfect harmony with the blending of their bodies.
- Giacomo Casanova: We have far too much power over women, a veritable tyranny, which we... we have been able to exercise only because they are gentler, more reasonable, more human beings than we are. These qualities which should give them superiority over us, have instead, put them at our mercy, for we are 100 times more unreasonable, more cruel, more violent, seemingly born to enslave and oppress.
- Giacomo Casanova: Your lover shall be cuckolded. I shall devote the whole of my knowledge of the science of love to that purpose.
- Giacomo Casanova: Love is a source and root of life. Love gives birth to passions and impulses, be they good or evil. Love gives birth to the eternal flame, be it divine or human. Love gives birth to gods or devils.
- Giacomo Casanova: [to a French woman who is involved with a Hungarian man] How do you talk to your lover?
- Henriette: We don't talk. We don't need to.
- Giacomo Casanova: Priestess of love, let us take off those austere clothes. They're not suitable for this, the happiest of rendezvous.
- Giacomo Casanova: Let us transcend carnal pleasures. Let us strive for the blending of our souls in a deep and perfect union.
- Giacomo Casanova: He who travels to Parma must seek out, and become acquainted with, three wonderful things: salami, prosciutto, and most famous of all, Parmesan cheese.
- Giacomo Casanova: We had been invited to an entertainment at the house of the hunchback, Du Bois, an eccentric nobleman noted for the undefined boundaries of his amorous interests. As undefined, indeed, as the boundaries of the duchy of Parma, which at that time was divided up between the Spanish and the French. That evening, two civilizations, two diametrically opposed visions of life, faced each other across the table.
- Madame D'Urfé: Oh, my dear boy, you can confide in me. I know that you have the famous stone, and the ability to communicate with the spirits of the four elements. Why, you could overthrow the kingdom of France any time you wanted.
- Giacomo Casanova: No. I could never do that. I love France. You must not overestimate me, dear lady.
- Henriette: I'll always remain the same Henriette. The one who has committed three acts of folly in my life. And the last, most wonderful folly, is my having met you.
- Giacomo Casanova: In the delirium of grief, I considered taking my life, or burying myself in a monastery and ending my days as a monk. But that time I chose neither grave nor cloister. Death, beloved friend of noble, unfortunate souls... Many years later in London, I did indeed nearly cross of my own volition the final threshold, but the blame for that morbid temptation lay at the feet of the infamous Charpillon woman, and her equally villainous daughter.
- Giacomo Casanova: What is a kiss? Simply the desire to immerse yourself in the soul of the woman you love.
- Giacomo Casanova: It would appear that the manners of the Romans have not improved since the days of Trimalchio.
- Giacomo Casanova: Who could she be, this Henriette? Who is this priceless treasure that has fallen into my hands? Can it be possible? O stars, speak to my happiness. Cry out from the heavens and reassure it. Tell it that this unimaginable wealth belongs to Giacomo Casanova alone.
- Madame Charpillon: Coachman, drive off at once! Take the whip to the horses! Or I'll have Lord Winston take the whip to you!
- Madame Charpillon: Cursed be the day I welcomed you into my house! Curse you and your damn talk about the stars and the horoscopes!
- Giacomo Casanova: It's you and your daughter who are accursed! You've infected me! You've ruined my health, my most precious possession!
- Giacomo Casanova: If I must appear in death's dread presence, I shall appear in style, dressed in my finest clothes, as befits the last and greatest ceremony. Soon I will be ready to meet my masters, the great men of the past, to seek them out. In the pale peace of limbo, they will welcome me. I shall meet Horace, and Dante. I shall converse with Petrarch, Ariosto, and you, Torquato Tasso, beloved friend whose verses suddenly come back to me at this supreme moment.
- Giacomo Casanova: I wish to spend the rest of my life with you, my beloved Henriette. Beautiful Henriette. Cruel Henriette. You hide so much from me. Your past, your qualities, your talents. When I heard you playing the cello this evening, I thought I would... I wanted to die.
- Giacomo Casanova: You vile harpies! May you spend the rest of your ignoble lives stewing in a Turkish brothel! You deserve to be flung into the foulest prison!
- Giacomo Casanova: An hour ago, nauseated by life, I tried to drown myself in the Thames. As I was sinking slowly into the cold, slimy water, reciting some lines of Tasso, I saw the most extraordinary woman. Seven feet tall, possibly more. My curiosity was aroused. I tried to follow her... lost her. I shall probably never find her again.
- Giacomo Casanova: I am so a custodian of my honor, I consider any casual reference to it, an outrage.
- Marquis Du Bois: A woman's kisses are like glasses of wine. You drink, and drink, and drink, till finally, you succumb.
- Marquis Du Bois: As you have noticed, Mademoiselle Henriette is no longer here.
- Giacomo Casanova: Where is she? What's happened to her?
- Marquis Du Bois: Nothing has happened to her, my dear friend. She's far better off than you or I. But, um, she was obliged by the most pressing of circumstances to leave before dawn. I happened to run into her while she was about to climb into D'Antoine's carriage, and, um, she took the opportunity to ask me to come here and advise you... indeed, warn you, not under any circumstances, to try and find her.
- Giacomo Casanova: Why did she have to leave? Who is D'Antoine?
- Marquis Du Bois: Now, don't excite yourself. I can say no more, except that Henriette is not a free agent. A person of the utmost importance, at a certain European court, has full powers over her, and, uh, D'Antoine is only the emissary he has sent to bring her back to her rightful place.
- Giacomo Casanova: Her rightful place is here with me, and I will find her and bring her back here, even if I have to face all the armies of Europe! Where did she go? In which direction?
- Marquis Du Bois: Why, towards the Alps, of course.
- Giacomo Casanova: I will leave immediately. I must find her.
- Marquis Du Bois: Oh, Signor Casanova...
- Giacomo Casanova: It's the only woman I will ever love!
- Giacomo Casanova: Take your paws off me, you little whore!
- Madame Charpillon: Whore? Me? Well, I certainly didn't get a chance to be one with you!
- Giacomo Casanova: Giacomo, can it be that your star is finally on the wane? You have suffered the grossest of insults. The greatest tragedy of your life has befallen you. For the first time, your steed has failed to answer the commands of your desires. Eros has forsaken you.
- Henriette: [explaining where she learned to play the cello] In the convent. But if it hadn't been for the express orders of the bishop, the mother superior would never have given me permission. That pious wife of Christ maintained that every time I took up the instrument, I was forced to assume an indecent posture.
- Giacomo Casanova: You're enchantingly beautiful. Your laugh is like the laughter on the face of a figure on an Etruscan tomb, full of grace and yet reserved, at once radiant and sepulchral.
- Isabella: Sepulchral? That's no way to talk about someone who has just saved you from death.
- Giacomo Casanova: Only to deliver me up to the sweetest of all deaths, that death in life, of love. I want to annihilate myself in you, my wise Minerva.
- Isabella: What a strange man you are, Giacomo. You can't talk of love without using funereal images? The sweetest of all deaths? Annihilate yourself? Perhaps what you really want is not to love, but to die.
- Giacomo Casanova: [laughing] I would like to leave that as late as possible. And when that time comes, I would like to be holding your hand.
- Giacomo Casanova: [when Isabella has not shown up for their rendezvous] Isabella, is it possible that you were deceiving me? No, I know you'll come. And if need be, I'll wait for you all my life.
- Giacomo Casanova: Never in all my life have I been a witness to such an outrage! Oh, it contravenes all the laws of hospitality, to draw weapons in a palace such as this. I cannot let it pass before my eyes unchallenged. Crawl back into your holes, you vermin!
- Prince Del Brando: I know your reputation, Signor Casanova. I am an ardent admirer of yours. If I were a woman, I would assuredly have already sought your bed. I've heard tell of prodigious exploits.
- Giacomo Casanova: Thank you, sir. The admiration of a nobleman such as yourself is flattering indeed.
- Prince Del Brando: Your prowess has been compared to that of a stallion, or at times, to that of a less noble beast.
- Giacomo Casanova: Sorry, Mama. I don't understand German very well. What were you saying?
- Casanova's mother: You don't understand? Or you don't want to understand?
- Giacomo Casanova: Observe these seeds, Your Excellency. They have the most remarkable properties. Every couple of years, with mechanical regularity, they produce a scarlet flower which, though repulsive to the eye, is miraculous in result. The man who discovered them is a Spanish monk. Now to look at him, you'd think he was not more than 40 years old. He is in fact over 100 years.
- Giacomo Casanova: It's a miracle! Not only am I cured, but I feel better and stronger than ever before. And the merit is all yours, my adorable and learned nymphs. You made me ill; you made me better.
- Isabella: Why do you say we made you ill?
- Giacomo Casanova: Did I say that? How strange. I don't know. Oh yes I do. It was those repulsive insects. Monstrous fiendish creatures, fluttering helplessly. Evil. Evil. Living symbols of evil. And to see them transfixed. To see the two of you pinning them, one by one. Horrible!
- Isabella: As if it were your body that was being pierced over and over again?
- Giacomo Casanova: Yes. And the pain I imagined was so intense, that I actually fainted. I am profoundly sensitive. There's no denying it. I'm a creature of the elements, of air, water...
- Isabella: [laughing] And of fire, too, from all I've heard about you.
- Giacomo Casanova: Isabella, now I understand. This mysterious illness has purified me, has enlightened me. The mere thought of dissipation fills me with nausea. All I want now is to spend my life peacefully, beside you, to bathe in the radiance that emanates from you. Say yes, Isabella, my sweet savior.
- Isabella: You are delirious, Giacomo. You are still weak from your illness. That's why you are talking like this.
- Giacomo Casanova: Listen to me. If you refuse, I shall fall ill again, but this time, forever.
- Isabella: I say I was right to say you were a creature of fire.
- Giacomo Casanova: Tomorrow I shall be leaving here. I can't live without you. Come with me.