The reader of these Memoirs will discover that I never had any fixed aim before my eyes, and that my system, if it can be called a system, has been to glide away unconcernedly on the stream of life, trusting to the wind wherever it led.

He also publiGiacomo Casanovad abundantly in French under the name Jacques Casanova de Seingalt. He has become so famous for his often complicated and elaborate affairs with women that his name is now synonymous with "womanizer". His autobiography Histoire de ma vie (Story of My Life) is regarded as one of the most authentic sources of the customs and norms of European social life during the 18th century.