top of page
.png){kind=small}
Quotes by Italian Authors
"But I don't think I have any particular talent for prediction, because when you have three or four elements in hand, you don't have to be a genius to reach certain conclusions."
"Experience does not err. Only your judgments err by expecting from her what is not in her power."
"Like other antitrust agencies we make our assessment of a merger or antitrust case based on its impact on our jurisdiction, and not on the nationality of the companies. This is exactly what the U.S. antitrust agencies, the Justice Department and the FTC, do."
"The world is a beautiful book, but of little use to him who cannot read it."
"I think that climatic changes have a natural causes according many geological data... I am very glad to sign the U.S. Senate's report of scientists against the theory of man-made global warming."
"The rights of the weak are not weaker rights, but are completely equal to the rights of the strong."
"It is requisite for the relaxation of the mind that we make use, from time to time, of playful deeds and jokes."
"The first movie I saw - and I don't know if it influenced me - was Ben Hur. We watched it outside in a corn field, and it ran backwards, so the first movie I ever saw was Ben Hur backwards."
"Three things are necessary for the salvation of man: to know what he ought to believe; to know what he ought to desire; and to know what he ought to do."
"Anyone who has obeyed nature by transmitting a piece of gossip experiences the explosive relief that accompanies the satisfying of a primary need."
"Any fact becomes important when it's connected to another."
"A book is a fragile creature, it suffers the wear of time, it fears rodents, the elements and clumsy hands. so the librarian protects the books not only against mankind but also against nature and devotes his life to this war with the forces of oblivion."
"The test of the artist does not lie in the will with which he goes to work, but in the excellence of the work he produces."
"The urge for good design is the same as the urge to go on living."
"Whatever is received is received according to the nature of the recipient."
"The one effective method of defending one's own territory from an offensive by air is to destroy the enemy's air power with the greatest possible speed."
"I love the smell of book ink in the morning."
"Joseph Stalin is a titan of thought. His name is to be given to an entire century."
"Wisdom is the daughter of experience."
"Our homeland is the whole world. Our law is liberty. We have but one thought, revolution in our hearts."
"There is only one thing that you write for yourself, and that is a shopping list."
"A woman is always a mystery: one must not be fooled by her face and her hearts inspiration."
"I abhor the supreme folly of those who blame the disciples of nature in defiance of those masters who were themselves her pupils."
"Once you have tasted flight, you will forever walk the earth with your eyes turned skyward, for there you have been, and there you will always long to return."
"All sciences are vain and full of errors that are not born of Experience, the mother of all Knowledge."
"There is nothing which deceives us as much as our own judgement."
"They will say that I, having no literary skill, cannot properly express that which I desire to treat of, but they do not know that my subjects are to be dealt with by experience rather than by words. And [experience] has been the mistress of those who wrote well. And so, as mistress, I will cite her in all cases. Though I may not, like them, be able to quote other authors, I shall rely on that which is much greater and more worthy: on experience, the mistress of their masters."
"The universal principle of etymology in all languages: words are carried over from bodies and from the properties of bodies to express the things of the mind and spirit. The order of ideas must follow the order of things."
"My books are about losers, about people who've lost their way and are engaged in a search."
"The fine thing about pacts with the devil is that when you sign them you are well aware of their conditions. Otherwise, why would you be recompensed with hell?"
"Once upon a time there were mass media, and they were wicked, of course, and there was a guilty party. Then there were the virtuous voices that accused the criminals. And Art (ah, what luck!) offered alternatives, for those who were not prisoners to the mass media.Well, it's all over. We have to start again from the beginning, asking one another what's going on."
"Nothing makes one feel so strong as a call for help."
"Throughout our lives, after all, we look for a story of our origins, to tell us why we were born and why we have lived."
"History is rich with adventurous men, long on charisma, with a highly developed instinct for their own interests, who have pursued personal power - bypassing parliaments and constitutions, distributing favours to their minions, and conflating their own desires with the interests of the community."
"I cannot solve the problem of life by losing myself in the problem of art."
"I would much rather have men ask why I have no statue than why I have one."
"I wrote a novel because I had a yen to do it. I believe this is sufficient reason to set out to tell a story."
bottom of page