Quotes by Italian Authors - Page 29

Mr. Codro's destiny is Ptolemaic; in other words, based on fiction. Ptolemaic says it all; it means above all fixed and unchanging, that is to say different from real life which is by nature changing and temporary. It means: not according to natural truth, but according to man's desire and the pretense inspired by his fear of dying and his desire for permanence.
Alberto Savinio
Western funerals: black hearses, and black horses, and fast-fading flowers. Why should black be the colour of death? Why not the colours of a sunset?
Daniele Varè
Como siempre, la consideración de su muerte lo serenaba tanto como lo turbaba la muerte de los demás. Tal vez porque, a fin de cuentas, su muerte era el final del mundo.
Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa
No thought is born in me that does not bear the image of death.
Michelangelo Buonarroti
Addio, Dann. Addio, piccolo signor Rail, che mi hai insegnato la vita. Avevi ragione tu: non siamo morti. Non è possibile morire vicino a te. Perfino Mormy ha aspettato che tu fossi lontano per farlo. Adesso sono io che vado lontano. E non sarà vicino a te che morirò. Addio, mio piccolo signore, che sognavi i treni e sapevi dov'era l'infinito. Tutto quel che c'era io l'ho visto, guardando te. E sono stata ovunque, stando con te. È una cosa che non riuscirò a spiegare mai a nessuno. Ma è così. Me la porterò dietro, e sarà il mio segreto più bello. Addio, Dann. Non pensarmi mai, se non ridendo. Addio.
Alessandro Baricco
The foolish rush to end their lives.Only the steadfast soul survives.
Christine de Pizan
Just being alive should make you late for everything. In case you've never noticed, the dead are always on time.
Arlene Ang
Death is not an evil, because it frees us from all evils, and while it takes away good things, it takes away also the desire for them. Old age is the supreme evil, because it deprives us of all pleasures, leaving us only the appetite for them, and it brings with it all sufferings. Nevertheless, we fear death, and we desire old age.
Giacomo Leopardi
the first quality of an honest man is contempt for religion, which would have us afraid of the most natural thing in the world, which is death; and would have us hate the one beautiful thing destiny has given us, which is life.
Umberto Eco
It is lucky that it is not windy today. Strange, how in some way one always has the impression of being fortunate, how some chance happening perhaps infinitesimal, stops us crossing the threshold of despair and allows us to live. It is raining, but it is not windy.
Primo Levi
«Proprio un elfo snob doveva toccarmi in sorte?» le rispose divertito. «Allora, non mi rimane altra scelta che portarti in campeggio, prima o poi, o in canoa o a fare una nuotata nel lago.»Lei lo fissò con la sua più riuscita espressione Scordartelo disegnata sul volto.«Puoi guardarmi come vuoi, ma mai dire mai» ridacchiò lui.«Oh, invece mai è una delle mie parole preferite.» «Scommetto che ti piacerebbe…»«Cosa?»«Il campeggio. Le stelle, il silenzio, le foglie che mormorano al vento, sai, quelle cose lì.» «Per non parlare di orsi, insetti e magari di qualche serpente che ha perso la strada di casa. Mi vengono i brividi solo a pensarci. Sono un elfo cittadino a tutti gli effetti e ho il terrore di tutto ciò che si muove e che non sia addomesticabile.»Lui la fissò con aria divertita. «Incluso il sottoscritto?»Le si era avvicinato troppo e ora la fissava come se volesse divorarla, in modo così sfacciato che, per puro istinto di sopravvivenza, arretrò di un passo. Non abbassò lo sguardo ma per qualche attimo non seppe cosa rispondergli. Non che avesse dubbi che la categoria esseri viventi non addomesticabili e pericolosi includesse anche lui, almeno a dar retta a tutte quelle farfalle che le svolazzavano nello stomaco, ma come avrebbe potuto rispondergli sì? Così gli sorrise a sua volta, pronta all’ennesima bugia.«Sono convinta, predatore, che tu, nonostante i grugniti e i continui brontolii e la tua probabile parentela con un grizzly, sia molto addomesticabile.»Lui alzò un sopracciglio, con un’espressione da schiaffi da premio Oscar.
Viviana Giorgi
It is our nature to be more moved by hope than fear.
Francesco Guicciardini
For this reason, it is well said that misfortune is sometimes good for something, for it teaches at the same time that it hurts.
Christine de Pizan
The corpse opened his eyes.
Donato Carrisi
Mentre che la speranza ha fior del verde
Dante Alighieri
There is a period for hope and one for mourning.
Federico Chini
Hope is nothing but a deceitful flatterer accepted by reason only because it is often in need of palliatives.
Giacomo Casanova
[W]hen someone finds himself quite unjustly attacked and hated on all sides, there is no need for such a person to feel dismayed by misfortune. See how Fortune, who has harmed many a one, is so inconstant, for God, Who opposes all wrong deeds, raises up those in whom hope dwells.
Christine de Pizan
[A] person whose head is bowed and whose eyes are heavy cannot look at the light.
Christine de Pizan
In these times I don't, in a manner of speaking, know what I want; perhaps I don't want what I know and want what I don't know.
Marsilio Ficino
Lui sta armeggiando in macchina cercando di liberare la piccola dalle cinture del seggiolino. La bimba sembra essersi svegliata, ma lui è bravo, le parla dolcemente e lei non piange e si lascia andare persino a un risolino.«Forse ci vorrebbe del latte» faccio io raggiungendoli, come se di bambini capissi tutto.«Yeah» risponde lui.Yeah?Poi annuisce e mi chiede cortesemente di prendere la borsa rosa che è in macchina. Obbedisco e trotterello dietro di lui in casa.Red, dall’alto del suo palco reale, segue la scena un po’ seccato e commenta con un miao altezzoso. Forse invidioso.Fuck you, Red.
Viviana Giorgi
Sono stata ammaliata dal fascino sfacciato e intrigante della Belle Epoque.Sfacciato perché, per la prima volta, in quell’epoca le distinzioni di classe perdevano d’importanza davanti all’irrompere dei tempi moderni. In effetti lo stile di vita borghese si evolve raggiungendo e talvolta superando in splendore, classe e mondanità l’aristocrazia medesima.Intrigante in quanto l’umanità accoglie unanime un rinnovamento sociale, culturale, tecnico, artistico senza precedenti.
Mariangela Camocardi
Are you lovers?""Excuse me?""Do you mind my asking you?""Yes.""It's off the record.""Then why do you need to know?"Daniel Moore smiled. A large, happy smile."Because I would like to ask you to dinner.
Francesca Marciano
A first kiss is the demarcation line: the same information that a moment ago felt private, all of a suddens seems unfair to withhold. And with that exchange came more.
Francesca Marciano
What is more natural than that a solidity, a complicity, a bond should be established between Reader and Reader, thanks to the book? You can leave the bookshop content, you, a man who thought that the period where you could still expect something from life had ended. You are bearing with you two different expectations, and both promise days of pleasant hopes; the expectation contained in the book - of a reading experience you are impatient to resume - and the expectation contained in that telephone number - of hearing again the vibrations, a times treble and at times smoldering, of that voice, when it will answer your first phone call in a while, in fact tomorrow, with the fragile pretext of the book, to ask her if she likes it or not, to tell her how many pages you have read or not read, to suggest to her that you meet again...
Italo Calvino
The Christian should be characterized by an effort to see things in the best light; if it is true that the word Evangelos means good news, then Christian means happy man, spreader of happiness. 'Grim faces,' Saint Philip Neri used to say, 'are not made for the merry house of Paradise!
Pope John Paul I
... but happiness is to joy as an electric light bulb is to the sun. Happiness always has an object, you're happy because of something, it's a condition whose existence depends on external things. Joy, on the other hand, has no object. It seizes you for no apparent reason, it's like the sun, its burning is fueled by its own heart.
Susanna Tamaro
Give up smoking cold turkey. Start a diet in the next 5 min. Accept that job right away. Life can be beautiful without planning!
Rossana Condoleo
May I nurture the serenity to accept the things I cannot change the courage to change the things I can change and wisdom to know the difference
Frank Ra (Exstatica)
You know, when you're unhappy you don't have the strength left to take care of others. But it doesn't mean you don't love them.
Francesca Marciano
There is no such thing as a perfectly happy or perfectly unhappy man in the world. One has more happiness in his life and another more unhappiness, and the same circumstance may produce widely different effects on individuals of different temperaments.
Giacomo Casanova
Sooner or later in life everyone discovers that perfect happiness is unrealizable, but there are few who stop to consider the antithesis; that perfect unhappiness is equally unattainable.
Primo Levi
The soul is in God and God in the soul, just as the fish is in the sea and the sea in the fish.
Catherine of Siena
Our labor here is brief, but the reward is eternal. Do not be disturbed by the clamor of the world, which passes like a shadow. Do not let false delights of a deceptive world deceive you.
St. Clare of Assisi
An Angel can illuminate the thought and mind of man by strengthening the power of vision and by bringing within his reach some truth which the Angel himself contemplates.
St. Padre Pio
God created the soul pure, simple and clean of all stain of sin, with a certain beatific instinct towards Himself whence original sin, which the soul finds in itself, draws it away, and when actual is added to original sin the soul is drawn yet further away. The further it departs from its beatific instinct, the more malignant it becomes because it corresponds less to God.
St. Catherine of Genoa
Never forget that the way which leads to heaven is narrow; that the gate leading to life is narrow and low; that there are but few who find it and enter by it; and if there be some who go in and tread the narrow path for some time, there are but very few who persevere therein.
St. Clare of Assisi
We become what we love and who we love shapes what we become. If we love things, we become a thing. If we love nothing, we become nothing. Imitation is not a literal mimicking of Christ, rather it means becoming the image of the beloved, an image disclosed through transformation. This means we are to become vessels of God's compassionate love for others.
St. Clare of Assisi
Speak gently but look out for your rights.
Christine de Pizan
non c’è peggiore infedeltà che essere fedeli a un morto
Don Lorenzo Milani
Where there is charity and wisdom, there is neither fear nor ignorance.
St. Francis of assisi
A man must...not be content to do things well, but must also aim to do them gracefully.
Giovanni della Casa
It is of the greatest important in this world that a man should know himself, and the measure of his own strength and means; and he who knows that he has not a genius for fighting must learn how to govern by the arts of peace.
Niccolò Machiavelli
Women particularly should concern themselves with peace because men by nature are more foolhardy and headstrong, and their overwhelming desire to avenge themselves prevents them from foreseeing the resulting dangers and terrors of war. But woman by nature is more gentle and circumspect. Therefore, if she has sufficient will and wisdom she can provide the best possible means to pacify man.
Christine de Pizan
[The wives of powerful noblemen] must be highly knowledgeable about government, and wise – in fact, far wiser than most other such women in power. The knowledge of a baroness must be so comprehensive that she can understand everything. Of her a philosopher might have said: "No one is wise who does not know some part of everything." Moreover, she must have the courage of a man. This means that she should not be brought up overmuch among women nor should she be indulged in extensive and feminine pampering. Why do I say that? If barons wish to be honoured as they deserve, they spend very little time in their manors and on their own lands. Going to war, attending their prince's court, and traveling are the three primary duties of such a lord. So the lady, his companion, must represent him at home during his absences. Although her husband is served by bailiffs, provosts, rent collectors, and land governors, she must govern them all. To do this according to her right she must conduct herself with such wisdom that she will be both feared and loved. As we have said before, the best possible fear comes from love. When wronged, her men must be able to turn to her for refuge. She must be so skilled and flexible that in each case she can respond suitably. Therefore, she must be knowledgeable in the mores of her locality and instructed in its usages, rights, and customs. She must be a good speaker, proud when pride is needed; circumspect with the scornful, surly, or rebellious; and charitably gentle and humble toward her good, obedient subjects. With the counsellors of her lord and with the advice of elder wise men, she ought to work directly with her people. No one should ever be able to say of her that she acts merely to have her own way. Again, she should have a man's heart. She must know the laws of arms and all things pertaining to warfare, ever prepared to command her men if there is need of it. She has to know both assault and defence tactics to insure that her fortresses are well defended, if she has any expectation of attack or believes she must initiate military action. Testing her men, she will discover their qualities of courage and determination before overly trusting them. She must know the number and strength of her men to gauge accurately her resources, so that she never will have to trust vain or feeble promises. Calculating what force she is capable of providing before her lord arrives with reinforcements, she also must know the financial resources she could call upon to sustain military action. She should avoid oppressing her men, since this is the surest way to incur their hatred. She can best cultivate their loyalty by speaking boldly and consistently to them, according to her council, not giving one reason today and another tomorrow. Speaking words of good courage to her men-at-arms as well as to her other retainers, she will urge them to loyalty and their best efforts.
Christine de Pizan
Not all men (and especially the wisest) share the opinion that it is bad for women to be educated. But it is very true that many foolish men have claimed this because it displeased them that women knew more than they did.
Christine de Pizan
Wisdom is the daughter of experience
Leonardo da Vinci
Realize that everything connects to everything else.
Leonardo da Vinci
If everything seems under control, you're not going fast enough.
Mario Andretti
You cannot teach a man anything, you can only help him find it within himself.
Galileo Galilei
The wisest are the most annoyed at the loss of time.
Dante Alighieri
As a well spent day brings happy sleep, so life well used brings happy death.
Leonardo da Vinci
I believe that what we become depends on what our fathers teach us at odd moments, when they aren't trying to teach us. We are formed by little scraps of wisdom.
Umberto Eco
Do you not see the Madonna always beside the tabernacle?
Padre Pio
If God created shadows it was to better emphasise the light.
Pope John XXIII
But he looks no more than thirty. He's very handsome-- so much you will admit; nor will you deny that he is very wealthy and very powerful; the greatest nobleman in Brittany. He will make me a great lady.''God made you that, Aline.
Rafael Sabatini
The longer the trial to which God subjects you, the greater the goodness in comforting you during the time of the trial and in the exaltation after the combat.
Padre Pio
Reason in man is rather like God in the world.
Thomas Aquinas
And what we say - that what He willeth is right and what He doth not not will is wrong, is not so to be understood, as if, should God will something inconsistent, it would be right because He willed it. For it does not follow that if God would lie it would be right to lie, but rather that he were not God.
Anselm of Canterbury
God is not willing to do everything, and thus take away our free will and that share of glory which belongs to us.
Niccolò Machiavelli