Quotes by Italian Authors - Page 4

A woman's body does a thousand different things, toils, runs, studies, fantasizes, invents, wearies, and meanwhile the breasts enlarge, the lips of the sex swell, the flesh throbs with a round life that is yours, your life, and yet pushes elsewhere, draws away from you although it inhabits your belly, joyful and weighty, felt as a greedy impulse and yet repellent, like an insect's poison injected into a vein.
Elena Ferrante
Does a rake deserve to possess anything of worth, since he chases everything in skirts and then imagines he can successfully hide his shame by slandering [women in general]?
Christine de Pizan
If I were to draw, I would apply myself only to studying the form of inanimate objects," I said somewhat imperiously, because I wanted to change the subjects and also because a natural inclination does truly lead me to recognise my moods in the motionless suffering of things.
Italo Calvino
Consistent happiness is an art - An art that involves taking and maintaining control of which thoughts you give attention to and which thoughts you disregard
Gennaro Moccia
If any pilgrim monk come from distant parts with wish as a guest to dwell in the monastery and will be content with the customs which he finds in the place and does not perchance by his lavishness disturb the monastery but is simply content with what he finds he shall be received for as long as he desires. If indeed he find fault with anything or expose it reasonably and with the humility of charity the Abbott shall discuss it prudently lest perchance God had sent him for this very thing. But if he have been found gossipy and contumacious in the time of his sojourn as guest not only ought he not be joined to the body of the monastery but also it shall be said to him honestly that he must depart. If he does not go let two stout monks in the name of God explain the matter to him.
Saint Benedict
You walk for days among trees and among stones. Rarely does the eye light on a thing, and then only when it has recognized that thing as the sign of another thing: a print in the sand indicates the tiger's passage; a marsh announces a vein of water; the hibiscus flower, the end of winter. All the rest is silent and interchangeable; trees and stones are only what they are.
Italo Calvino
For Leopardi, unhappy hedonist that he was, what is unknown is always more attractive than what is known; hope and imagination are the only consolations for the disappointments and sorrows of experience. Man therefore projects his desire into infinity and feels pleasure only when he is able to imagine that this pleasure has no end.
Italo Calvino
Painting is poetry that is seen rather than felt, and poetry is painting that is felt rather than seen.
Leonardo da Vinci
He was going to hurt the people he hated, but inside he didn't feel any real sense of satisfaction. He hated them all the more for having made him feel so small, so petty and mean, which was all he felt just then. But it wasn't enough to stop him.
Riccardo Bruni
The heart of a Christian, who believes and feels, cannot pass the hardships and deprivations of the poor without helping them.
Louis Guanella
Happiness supports enthusiasm and empowers creativity and initiative.Happiness makes you a better person in your private, family, and work spheres.Happiness keeps you healthy and lets you stick to your plans. Cultivate happiness as the most precious flower in your Garden. - From HAPPY DIVORCE, by Rossana CondoleogardenRossana Condoleo
Rossana Condoleo
Reality is always richer, more unpredictable than our deductions
Leonardo Sciascia
The human heart in its perversity finds it hard to escape hatred and revenge.
Moses Luzzatto
... When Princes devote themselves rather to pleasure than to arms, they lose their dominions.
Niccolò Machiavelli
poor is the pupil who does not surpass his master.
Leonardo da Vinci
I have indeed lived and worked to my taste either in art or science. What more could a man desire? Knowledge has always been my goal. There is much that I shall leave behind undone…but something at least I was privileged to leave for the world to use, if it so intends…As the Latin poet said I will leave the table of the living like a guest who has eaten his fill. Yes, if I had another life to spend, I certainly would not waste it. But that cannot be, so why complain?
Léon Camille Marius Croizat
You can be happy indeed if you have breathing space from pain.
Giacomo Leopardi
There is always a certain peace in being what one is in being that completely.
Ugo Betti
He who wishes to be obeyed must know how to command
Niccolò Machiavelli
I soon had to admit that what I did by myself couldn't excite me, only what Lila touched became important.
Elena Ferrante
I lacked the courage to investigate the weaknesses of the wicked, because I discovered they are the same as the weaknesses of the saintly.
Umberto Eco
Something must always remain that eludes us ... For power to have an object on which it can be exercised, a space in which to stretch out its arms ... As long as I know there exists in the world someone who does tricks only for the love of the trick, as long as I know there is a woman who loves reading for reading's sake, I can convince myself that the world continues ... And every evening I, too, abandon myself to reading, like that distant unknown woman ....
Italo Calvino
I do not try, Lord, to attain Your lofty heights, because my understanding is in no way equal to it. But I do desire to understand Your truth a little, that truth that my heart believes and loves. For I do not seek to understand so that I may believe; but I believe so that I may understand. For I believe this also, that “unless I believe, I shall not understand.
Anslem of Canterbury
You really love to gossip, don't you?” he asked, wishing she had brought him a glass of wine.“Yes, I suppose I do,” she answered, sounding surprised at the realization. “You think that's why I love reading novels so much?
Donna Leon
He who does not know how to believe, should not know.
Antonio Porchia
When we do something we like, we are not only happy. We are also very strong!
Rossana Condoleo
Since there is nothing so well worth having as friends never lose a chance to make them.
Francesco Guicciardini
Making mathematics accessible to the educated layman, while keeping high scientific standards, has always been considered a treacherous navigation between the Scylla of professional contempt and the Charybdis of public misunderstanding.
Gian-Carlo Rota
Nothing strengthens authority so much as silence.
Leonardo da Vinci
He listened to their opinions, stated his own, and supported them with reasons; and from his being constantly occupied with such meditations, it resulted, that when in command no complication could ever present itself with which he was not prepared to deal.
Niccolò Machiavelli
We should seek not so much to pray but to become prayer.
Francis of Assisi
One might be led to question whether the scientists acted wisely in presenting the statesmen of the world with this appalling problem. Actually there was no choice. Once basic knowledge is acquired, any attempt at preventing its fruition would be as futile as hoping to stop the earth from revolving around the sun.
Enrico Fermi
Every day my anxiety is higher,every day the grief more mortal.Today more than yesterday terror exalts me…
Pier Paolo Pasolini
He who imitates what is evil always goes beyond the example that is set on the contrary he who imitates what is good always falls short.
Francesco Guicciardini
There is a fountain of youth: it is your mind, your talents, the creativity you bring to your life and the lives of people you love. When you learn to tap this source, you will truly have defeated age.
Sophia Loren
That the nobility of Man, acquired in a hundred centuries of trial and error, lay in making himself the conquerer of matter, and that I had enrolled in chemistry because I wanted to maintain faithful to that nobility. That conquering matter is to understand it, and understanding matter is necessary to understanding the universe and ourselves: and that therefore Mendeleev’s Periodic Table, which just during those weeks we were laboriously learning to unravel, was poetry, loftier and more solemn than all the poetry we had swallowed doen in liceo; and come to think of it, it even rhymed! …[T]he chemistry and physics on which we fed, besides being in themselves nourishments vital in themselves, were the antidotes to Fascism … because they were clear and distinct and verifiable at every step, and not a tissue of lies and emptiness like the radio and newspapers.
Primo Levi
We can create transcending stories for readers and for us. Creativity is a double edge sword, which can kill the writer.
Rossana Condoleo
She could sense it very clearly: for me, no less than for her, the past counted far more than the present, remembering something far more than possessing it. Compared to memory, every possession can only ever seem disappointing, banal, inadequate ... She understood me so well! My anxiety that the present 'immediately' turned into the past so that I could love it and dream about it at leisure was just like hers, was identical. It was 'our' vice, this: to go forwards with our heads forever turned back.
Giorgio Bassani
Be strong and kill yourself with the sword of hate and love, then you will not hear the insults and abuse which the enemies of the Church throw at you. Your eyes will not see anything which seems impossible, or the sufferings which may follow, but only the light of faith, and in that light everything is possible; and remember God never lays greater burdens on us than we can bear.
Catherine of Siena
It is an acknowledged fact that we perceive errors in the work of others more readily than in our own.
Leonardo da Vinci
What I have been asking myself for years is: WHY?!Why kill yourself in the gym? Why try to avoid a little bit of a gut? Why feel bad for eating half of a cake? This doesn’t mean that I killed somebody, plus I left the other half of the cake for tomorrow, I didn’t finish all of it!
Sara Anzellotti
I have the greatest of all riches: that of not desiring them.
Eleonora Duse
Wagner has lovely moments but awful quarters of an hour.
Gioacchino Rossini
It's absurd how crazy love can make you......but even more absurd how stupid jealousy can make you!
Mirella Muffarotto
He loves He hopes He waits. Our Lord prefers to wait Himself for the sinner for years rather than keep us waiting an instant.
Maria Goretti
They merit more praise who know how to suffer misery than those who temper themselves in contentment.
Pietro Aretino
What a man dares to do, he should dare to confess- unless he is a coward.
Rafael Sabatini
The man who trusts other men will make fewer mistakes than he who distrusts them.
Camillo Di Cavour
Pain and grief have been kept buried for ages, bred in secrecy and shame, wrapped by an ongoing conspiracy of smiles and well-being. Pain and grief are most healing and ecstatic emotions. Yes, sure, they can be hard, yet what makes them most devastating is the perverted idea that they are wrong, that they need to be hidden and fixed. The greatest perversion I can conceive is the idea that illness and pain are a sign that there is something wrong in our life, that we have unresolved issues, that we have made mistakes. In this world everyone is bound to get ill, experience pain and die. The greatest gift I can give to myself and the world is the joyful acceptance of this. Today I want to be real, I will not hide my pain as well as my happiness. I will not care if my gloomy face or desperate words cause concern or embarrassment in others. I do not need be fed with reassuring words about the beauty of life. The beauty of life resides in the full acceptance of All That Is.
Franco Santoro
It must be said that charity can, in no way, exist along with mortal sin.
Thomas Aquinas
The constant talker will never, or a least rarely, grasp truth. Of course even he must experience some truths, otherwise he could not exist. He does notice certain facts, observe certain relations, draw conclusions and make plans. But he does not yet possess genuine truth, which comes into being only when the essence of an object, the significance of a relaton, and what is valid and eternal in this world reveal themselves. This requires the spacousness, freedom, and pure receptiveness of that inner “clean-swept room” whilch silence alone can create
Romano Guardini
As far as you are able to gather from hints scattered through these letters, Apocryphal Power, riven by internecine battles and eluding the control of its founder, Ermes Marana, has broken into two groups: a sect of enlightened followers of the Archangel of Light and a sect of nihilist followers of the Archon of Shadow. The former are convinced that among the false books flooding the world they can track down the few that bear a truth perhaps extrahuman or extraterrestrial. The latter believe that only counterfeiting, mystification, intentional falsehood can represent absolute value in a book, a truth not contaminated by the dominant pseudo truths.
Italo Calvino
I have offended God and mankind because my work didn't reach the quality it should have.
Leonardo da Vinci
Fascism should more appropriately be called Corporatism because it is a merger of state and corporate power" <-- This is a fake quote, it appears in none of the writings or recorded speeches of Mussolini.― Benito Mussolini
Benito Mussolini
Remorse shows the difference between a cruel person and one that is not.
Federico Chini
Beauty awakens the soul to act.
Dante Alighieri
Because philosophy arises from awe, a philosopher is bound in his way to be a lover of myths and poetic fables. Poets and philosophers are alike in being big with wonder.
Thomas Aquinas
It really is something ... that men disapprove even of our doing things that are patently good. Wouldn't it be possible for us just to banish these men from our lives, and escape their carping and jeering once and for all? Couldn't we live without them? Couldn't we earn our living and manage our affairs without help from them? Come on, let's wake up, and claim back our freedom, and the honour and dignity that they have usurped from us for so long. Do you think that if we really put our minds to it, we would be lacking the courage to defend ourselves, the strength to fend for ourselves, or the talents to earn our own living? Let's take our courage into our hands and do it, and then we can leave it up to them to mend their ways as much as they can: we shan't really care what the outcome is, just as long as we are no longer subjugated to them.
Moderata Fonte
One cannot judge 'Lohengrin' from a first hearing and I certainly do not intend to hear it a second time.
Gioacchino Rossini
Representative government is artifice, a political myth, designed to conceal from the masses the dominance of a self-selected, self-perpetuating, and self-serving traditional ruling class.
Giuseppe Prezzolini