Lawyers from Italy

"Nothing irritates us Fascists] so much as to be taken for pillars of order. Nothing so exasperates us as the people who come to us through fear of Communism. Those good people [who are fearful of all social change] will have to realize, and we shall soon make them realize, that the weight of the social problem is now on our shoulders and that they would be wiser to fear us than to fear Communism."

"He will be immediately avenged!"

"Only the Duce must give them orders, have you forgotten that? You have forgotten finally too much. How disgusting."

"Churchill must not forget that the Italians have nothing more to lose and they possess a courage of despair."

"All those traitors who were morally against fascism during the shameful forty-five days following July 25 must inexorably be wiped out."

"Lo squadrismo è stato la primavera della nostra vita, e chi è stato squadrista una volta lo è per sempre."

"Vita sei nostra amica, morte sei nostra amante."

"To know the nature of man, the most direct and wisest way undoubtedly is to know what he has always been. Since when can theories be opposed to facts? History is experimental politics; this is the best or rather the only good politics."

"Nations are barbarian in their infancy but not savage. The barbarian is a proportional mean between the savage and the citizen. He already possesses no end of knowledge: he has habitations, some agriculture, domestic animals, laws, a cult, regular tribunals; he lacks only the sciences."

"Man is an enigma whose knot has not ceased to occupy observers. The contradictions that he contains astonish reason and impose silence on it. So what is this inconceivable being who carries within him powers that clash and who is obliged to hate himself in order to esteem himself?"

"Creating difficulties for himself for the pleasure of resolving them is a strange human mania."

"Burke said with a depth that it is impossible to admire enough that art is man’s nature: yes, undoubtedly, man with all his affections, all his knowledge, all his arts, is truly the man of nature, and the weaver’s web is as natural as the spider’s."

"If sovereignty is not anterior to a people, at least these two ideas are collateral, since it takes a sovereign to make a people. It is as impossible to imagine a human society without a sovereign as a hive and a swarm without a queen, for a swarm, in virtue of the eternal laws of nature, exists in this way or it does not exist."

"Men never respect what they have made themselves. This is why an elective king never possesses the moral power of a hereditary sovereign, because he is not noble enough, that is to say he does not possess that kind of greatness independent of men and that is the work of time."

"In a word, the mass of the people counts for nothing in every political creation. A people even respects a government only because it is not its own creation. This feeling is engraved on its heart in profound characters. It submits to sovereignty because it senses that it is something sacred it can neither create nor destroy. If, as a consequence of corruption and perfidious suggestions, this preventive sentiment is somehow effaced, if it has the misfortune of believing itself called as a body to reform the State, all is lost. This is why, even in free States, it is extremely important that the men who govern be separated from the mass of the people by that personal respect stemming from birth and wealth."

"In the Koran as in the Bible, politics is divinized, and human reason, crushed by the religious ascendancy, cannot insinuate its isolating and corrosive poison into the mechanisms of government, so that citizens are believers whose loyalty is exalted to faith, and obedience to enthusiasm and fanaticism."

"The wiser nations are, the more public spirit they possess, the more perfect their political constitution, the fewer constitutional laws they have, for these laws are only props, and a building only needs props when it has become out of plumb or when it has been violently shaken by an external force. The most perfect constitution of antiquity was without contradiction that of Sparta, and Sparta has not left us a single line of its public law. It justly boasted of having written its laws only in the hearts of its children."

"Human reason reduced to its own resources is perfectly worthless, not only for creating but also for preserving any political or religious association, because it only produces disputes, and, to conduct himself well, man needs not problems but beliefs. His cradle should be surrounded by dogmas, and when his reason is awakened, it should find all his opinions ready-made, at least all those relating to his conduct. Nothing is so important to him as prejudices. Let us not take this word in a bad sense. It does not necessarily mean false ideas, but only, in the strict sense of the word, opinions adopted before any examination. Now these sorts of opinions are man’s greatest need, the true elements of his happiness, and the Palladium of empires. Without them, there can be neither worship, nor morality, nor government. There must be a state religion just as there is a state policy; or, rather, religious and political dogmas must be merged and mingled together to form a complete common or national reason strong enough to repress the aberrations of individual reason, which of its nature is the mortal enemy of any association whatever because it produces only divergent opinions."

"Government is a true religion: it has its dogmas, its mysteries, and its ministers. To annihilate it or submit it to the discussion of each individual is the same thing; it lives only through national reason, that is to say through political faith, which is a creed."

"Faith and patriotism are the two great thaumaturges of this world. Both are divine; all their actions are prodigies. Do not go to them talking of examination, choice, or discussion; they will say that you blaspheme. They know only two words: submission and belief; with these two levers they raise the world. Even their errors are sublime. These two children of Heaven prove their origin to all eyes by creating and conserving; but if they unite, join their forces, and together take possession of a nation, they exalt it, they divinize it, and they increase its forces a hundred-fold."

"Any institution is only a political structure. In physics and in morals, the laws are the same; you cannot build a large structure on a narrow foundation, nor a durable structure on a moving or transient base. In the political order, therefore, if one wants to build on a large scale and for the centuries, one must rely on an opinion, on a large and profound belief. For if this opinion does not dominate a majority of minds and if it is not deeply rooted, it will furnish only a narrow and transient base."

"It is always necessary to call men back to history, which is the first master in politics, or more exactly the only master."

"As long as the aristocracy is healthy, the name of the sovereign sacred to it, and it loves the monarchy passionately, the State is unshakeable, whatever be the qualities of the king. But once it loses its greatness, its pride, its energy, its faith, the spirit withdraws, the monarchy is dead, and its cadaver is left to the worms."

"How many mistakes power has committed! And how often has it ignored the means to conserve itself! Man is insatiable for power; he is infinite in his desires, and, always discontented with what he has, he loves only what he has not. People complain about the despotism of princes; they should complain about that of man. We are all born despots, from the most absolute monarch of Asia to the child who smothers a bird with his hand for the pleasure of seeing something in the world weaker than himself. There is no man who does not abuse power, and experience proves that the most abominable despots, if they come to seize the sceptre, will be precisely those who rant against despotism."

"The mixture of children and men is precisely one of the most beautiful features of aristocratic government. All roles are distributed wisely in the world: that of the young is to do good, and that of old age is to prevent evil. The impetuosity of young men, who demand only action and creation, is very useful to the State; but they are too likely to innovate and destroy, and they would do much evil without the elderly, who are there to stop them. The latter in their turn oppose even useful reforms; they are too inflexible, they do not know how to accommodate themselves to circumstances, and sometimes a twenty-year old senator can very well be placed beside another of eighty."

"The sentiment that dominates all Rousseau’s works is a certain plebeian anger that excites him against every kind of superiority. The energetic submission of the wise man bends nobly under the indispensable empire of social distinctions, and never does be appear greater than when he bows; but Rousseau has nothing at all of this loftiness. Weak and surly, he spent his life spouting insults to the great, as he would have offered the same to the people if he had been born a great lord."

"The most beautiful monuments of Athens belong to the century of Pericles. In Rome, what writers were produced under the Republic? Only Plautus and Terence. Lucretius, Sallust, and Cicero saw the Republic die. Then came the century of Augustus when the nation was all that it could be by way of talents. The arts, in general, need a king; they only flourish under the influence of sceptres. Even in Greece, the only country where they flourished in the milieu of a republic, Lysippos and Apelles worked for Alexander. Aristotle owed to Alexander’s generosity the means to compose his history of animals; and, after the death of this monarch, the poets, scholars, and artists went to look for protection and rewards in the courts of his successors."

"We are all attached to the throne of the Supreme Being by a supple chain that restrains us without enslaving us. Nothing is more admirable in the universal order of things than the action of free beings under the divine hand. Freely slaves, they act voluntarily and necessarily at the same time; they really do what they will, but without being able to disturb the general plans. Each of these beings occupies the centre of a sphere of activity whose diameter varies according to the will of the Eternal Geometer, who can extend, restrict, check, or direct the will without altering its nature."

"Men do not lead the revolution; it is the Revolution that uses men. They are right when they say it goes all alone. This phrase means that never has the Divinity shown itself so clearly in any human event. If the vilest instruments are employed, punishment is for the sake of regeneration."

"Too many French scholars were the principal authors of the Revolution, too many approved and gave their support so long as the Revolution, like Tarquinius' sceptre, struck down only the tallest heads. Like so many others, they said, It is impossible to make a great revolution without incurring misfortunes. But when a philosopher justifies evil by the end in view, when he says in his heart, Let there be a hundred thousand murders, provided we are free, and Providence replies, I accept your offer, but you must be included in the number, where is the injustice?"

"If Providence erases, it is no doubt in order to write."

"Providence has given the French nation precisely two instruments, two arms, so to speak, with which it stirs up the world – the French language and the spirit of proselytism that forms the essence of the nation's character."

"This makes me think that the French Revolution is a great epoch and that its consequences, in all kinds of ways, will be felt far beyond the time of its explosion and the limits of its birthplace."

"Unhappily, history proves that war is, in a certain sense, the habitual state of mankind, which is to say that human blood must flow without interruption somewhere or other on the globe, and that for every nation, peace is only a respite."

"It is from the shadow of a cloister that there emerges one of mankind's greatest very greatest scourges. Luther appears; Calvin follows him. The Peasants' Revolt; the Thirty Years' War; the civil war in France; the massacre of the Low Countries; the massacre of Ireland; the massacre of the Cévennes; St Bartholomew's Day; the murders of Henry II, Henry IV, Mary Stuart, and Charles I; and finally, in our day, from the same source, the French Revolution."

"Now the real fruits of human nature – the arts, sciences, great enterprises, lofty conceptions, manly virtues – are due especially to the state of war. […] In a word, we can say that blood is the manure of the plant we call genius."

"Men gather the clouds, and then they complain of the tempests that follow."

"There is nothing but violence in the universe; but we are spoiled by a modern philosophy that tells us all is good, whereas evil has tainted everything, and in a very real sense, all is evil, since nothing is in its place."

"There is no chastisement that does not purify; there is no disorder that ETERNAL LOVE does not turn against the principle of evil."

"Either every imaginable institution is founded on a religious concept or it is only a passing phenomenon. Institutions are strong and durable to the degree that they are, so to speak, deified. Not only is human reason, or what is ignorantly called philosophy, incapable of supplying these foundations, which with equal ignorance are called superstitious, but philosophy is, on the contrary, an essentially disruptive force."

"You, masters of the earth – princes, kings, emperors, powerful majesties, invincible conquerors – simply try to make the people go on such-and-such a day each year to a given place to dance. I ask little of you, but I dare give you a solemn challenge to succeed, whereas the humblest missionary will succeed and be obeyed two thousand years after his death. Every year the people gather around some rustic temple in the name of St John, St Martin, St Benedict, etc.; they come, animated by a feverish and yet innocent eagerness; religion sanctifies their joy and the joy embellishes religion; they forget their troubles; on leaving they think of the pleasure that they will have on the same day the following year, and the date is set in their minds."

"There is the same difference between political theory and constitutional laws as there is between poetics and poetry. The illustrious Montesquieu is to Lycurgus, in the intellectual hierarchy, what Batteux is to Homer or Racine. Moreover, these two talents positively exclude each other, as can be seen by the example of Locke, who fumbled badly when he presumed to give laws to the Americans."

"The Constitution of 1795, like its predecessors, was made for man. But there is no such thing as man in the world. In my lifetime I have seen Frenchmen, Italians, Russians, etc.; thanks to Montesquieu, I even know that one can be Persian. But as for man, I declare that I have never in my life met him; if he exists, he is unknown to me."

"Why so many laws? Because there is no legislator. What have these so-called legislators done in six years? Nothing, for to destroy is not to make."

"Do not listen to the reasoners; there has been too much reasoning in France, and reasoning has banished reason. Put aside your fears and reservations, and trust the infallible instinct of your conscience. Do you want to redeem yourselves in your own eyes? Do you want to acquire the right of self-esteem? Do you want to accomplish a sovereign act? . . . Recall your sovereign."

"I am a perfect stranger to France, which I have never seen, and I expect nothing from her king, whom I shall never know."

"What are we, weak and blind human beings! And what is that flickering light we call Reason? When we have calculated all the probabilities, questioned history, satisfied every doubt and special interest, we may still embrace only a deceptive shadow rather than the truth. What decree has He pronounced on the king, on his dynasty, on his family, on France, and on Europe? Where and when will the troubles end, and by how many misfortunes must we purchase our tranquillity? Is it to build that He has overthrown, or are our hardships to last forever? Alas! A dark cloud hides the future and no eye can penetrate its shadows."

"'Long live the king,' cry the loving and the loyal, beside themselves with joy. 'Long live the king,' responds the republican hypocrite in dire terror. What does it matter? There is only one cry. And the king is crowned."

"Frenchmen, it was to the noise of hellish songs, the blasphemy of atheism, the cries of death, and the prolonged moans of slaughtered innocence, it was by the light of flames, on the debris of throne and altar, watered by the blood of the best of kings and an innumerable host of other victims, it was by the contempt of morality and the established faith, it was in the midst of every crime that your seducers and your tyrants founded what they call your liberty."

"The vices are very justly man's executioners."

"Providence has already begun the punishment of the guilty; more than sixty regicides, the most guilty among them, have already died a violent death."

"The return to order will not be painful, because it will be natural and because it will be favoured by a secret force whose action is wholly creative. We will see precisely the opposite of what we have seen. Instead of these violent commotions, painful divisions, and perpetual and desperate oscillations, a certain stability, and indefinable peace, a universal well-being will announce the presence of sovereignty. There will be no shocks, no violence, no punishment even, except those which the true nation will approve. Even crime and usurpation will be treated with a measured severity, with a calm justice that belongs to legitimate power only. The king will bind up the wounds of the state with a gentle and paternal hand. In conclusion, this is the great truth with which the French cannot be too greatly impressed: the restoration of the monarchy, what they call the counter-revolution, will be not a contrary revolution, but the contrary of revolution."

"It is written, By me kings reign. This is not a phrase of the church, a metaphor of the preacher; it is a literal truth, simple and palpable. It is a law of the political world. God makes kings in the literal sense. He prepares royal races; maturing them under a cloud which conceals their origin. They appear at length crowned with glory and honour; they take their places; and this is the most certain sign of their legitimacy."

"The eighteenth century, which distrusted itself in nothing, as a matter of course, hesitated in nothing."

"Nothing great has great beginnings."

"Never have nations been civilized, except by religion."

"The question is frequently asked: why there is a school of theology attached to every University? The answer is easy: It is, that the Universities may subsist, and that the instruction may not become corrupt. Originally, the Universities were only schools of theology, to which other faculties were joined, as subjects around their Queen. The edifice of public instruction, placed on such a foundation, has continued even to our day. Those who have subverted it among themselves, will repent it, in vain, for a long time to come. To burn a city, there is needed only a child or a madman; but to rebuild it, architects, materials, workmen, money, and especially time, will be required."

"If we do not return to the old maxims, if education is not restored into the hands of priests, and if science is not every where placed in the second rank, the evils which await us are incalculable: we shall become brutalized by science, and this is the lowest degree of brutality."

"No human institution can endure unless supported by the Hand which supports all; that is to say, if it is not especially consecrated to Him at its origin. The more it is penetrated with the Divine principle, the more durable it will be. How strange is the blindness of men in our age! They boast of their knowledge, and are ignorant of everything, since they are ignorant of themselves. They know not what they are, nor what they can do. An invincible pride bears them on continually to overthrow every thing which they have not made; and in order to work out new creations, they separate themselves from the source of all existence. Jean-Jacques Rousseau has, however, very well said, Little, vain man, show me thy power, and I will show thee thy weakness. It might be said, with as much truth and more profit, Little, vain man, confess to me thy weakness, and I will show thee thy strength."

"False opinions are like false money, struck first of all by guilty men and thereafter circulated by honest people who perpetuate the crime without knowing what they are doing."

"All grandeur, all power, all subordination to authority rests on the executioner: he is the horror and the bond of human association. Remove this incomprehensible agent from the world and at that very moment order gives way to chaos, thrones topple and society disappears."

"[M]an cannot be wicked without being evil, nor evil without being degraded, nor degraded without being punished, nor punished without being guilty. In short … there is nothing so intrinsically plausible as the theory of original sin."

"Wherever an altar is found, there civilization exists."

"All pain is a punishment, and every punishment is inflicted for love as much as for justice."

"Reason can make little headway on its own and struggles to be heard; often it has to be – so to speak – armed by the fearsome epigram. French wit pricks like a needle, so that the thread goes through the hole."

"In the immense sphere of living things, the obvious rule is violence, a kind of inevitable frenzy which arms all things in mutua funera. Once you leave the world of insensible substances, you find the decree of violent death written on the very frontiers of life. Even in the vegetable kingdom, this law can be perceived: from the huge catalpa to the smallest of grasses, how many plants die and how many are killed!"

"War is divine in itself, since it is a law of the world. War is divine through its consequences of a supernatural nature which are as much general as particular, consequences little known because little studied, but which are nevertheless incontestable. War is divine in the mysterious glory that surrounds it and in the no less inexplicable attraction that draws us to it. War is divine by the manner in which it breaks out."

"Opinion is so powerful in war that it can alter the nature of the same event and give it two different names, for no reason other than its own whim. A general throws his men between two enemy armies and he writes to his king, I have split him, he has lost. His opponent writes to his king, He has put himself between two fires, he is lost. Which of the two is mistaken? Whoever is seized by the cold goddess. Assuming that all things, especially size, are at least approximately equal, the only difference between the two positions is a purely moral one. It is imagination that loses battles."

"The first among the sciences is that of statesmanship. That cannot be learnt in academies. No great minister, from Suger to Richelieu, ever occupied himself with physics or mathematics. The genius of the natural sciences makes impossible that other kind of genius, which is a talent unto itself."

"All sciences have their mysteries and at certain points the apparently most obvious theory will be found in contradiction with experience. Politics, for example, offers several proofs of this truth. In theory, is anything more absurd than hereditary monarchy? We judge it by experience, but if government had never been heard of and we had to choose one, whoever would deliberate between hereditary and elective monarchy would be taken for a fool. Yet we know by experience that the first is, all things considered, the best that can be imagined, while the second is the worst. What arguments could not be amassed to establish that sovereignty comes from the people? However they all amount to nothing. Sovereignty is always taken, never given, and a second more profound theory subsequently discovers why this must be so. Who would not say the best political constitution is that which has been debated and drafted by statesmen perfectly acquainted with the national character, and who have foreseen every circumstance? Nevertheless nothing is more false. The best constituted people is the one that has the fewest written constitutional laws, and every written constitution is worthless."

"Genius does not seem to derive any great support from syllogisms. Its carriage is free; its manner has a touch of inspiration. We see it come, but we never see it walk."

"When we reflect, that the Inquisition, by its restrictions, and authority, would have prevented the French revolution,—it is hard to say, whether the Sovereign, who, wholly, and without reserve, gave up this instrument, would not, in reality, be doing an injury to humanity."

"During the last three centuries, there has been, by virtue of the Inquisition, a greater enjoyment of peace, and happiness, in Spain, than in the other nations of Europe."

"If you wish to extinguish that enthusiasm, which inspires great thoughts, and impels to noble enterprises;—if you wish to render men's hearts cold, and unfeeling; and to substitute egotism in the room of generous, and ardent, patriotism,—if you wish to do this, only take away from the people their faith, and make them philosophers."

"There is a great analogy between grace and genius, for genius is a grace. The real man of genius is the one who acts by grace or by impulsion, without ever contemplating himself and without ever saying to himself: Yes! It is by grace that I act."

"There is perhaps nothing more interesting than to listen to a superior man talk of what he does not know. He advances slowly, and scarcely puts his foot down without knowing if the ground is solid; he looks for plausible analogies; he tries to attach his ideas to higher and incontestable principles; he always has the tone of looking, never that of teaching; and it often happens that, even if he is mistaken, he leaves a great enough idea of his mental honesty."

"By means of [the microscope and the telescope] man touched, one might say, the two infinities. With the aid of glass, he could contemplate at his leisure the mite and the ring of Saturn. […] Master of glass through fire, and master of light through glass, he had lenses and mirrors of all kinds, prisms, containers, beakers, tubes, and finally barometers and thermometers. However all this originally began with the astronomical lens, which honours glass; and physics is born in some manner from astronomy, as it was written that, even in a material and gross sense, all science must descend from heaven."

"Man, in wearing himself out his whole life long by saying: What is that! and what is that called! and what does that mean! is a big spectacle to himself if he wants to open his eyes. All his natural powers tending towards the truth, he never ceases looking for true names; he senses a language prior to that of Babel, and even of Eden."

"The greatest of errors therefore would be to believe what the modern sect, which has only worked to obscure all truths, never ceases to advance, which is that what cannot be defined is not known, while on the contrary what is of the essence of what is perfectly known cannot be defined; for the more a thing is known, the more it brings us to intuition, which excludes all equation."

"All the science in the world began in temples, and the first astronomers especially were priests. I do not say that it necessary to begin again with the antique initiation, and to change the presidents of our academies into hierophants, but I say that all things begin again as they began, that they all carry an original principle that modifies itself according to the different character of nations and the progressive advance of the human mind, but which however always shows itself in one way or another. Priests have preserved everything, brooded over everything, and taught us everything."

"I remember that in a widely distributed French newspaper they asked the famous author of the Génie du Christianisme, if a nymph was not a bit more beautiful than a nun. In supposing them represented by the same talent or by equal talents (a condition without which the question would make no sense), there is no doubt that the nun would be more beautiful. The error best suited to extinguishing the true sentiment of beauty is that of confusing that which pleases with that which is beautiful, or in other words, that which pleases the senses with that which pleases the intelligence."

"Religious beauty is superior to ideal beauty, since it is the ideal of the ideal."

"The Christian woman is therefore a supernatural model like the angel. […] At the sight of these figures, however beautiful one can imagine them, no profane thought would dare arise in the heart of a man of taste. One owes them a certain intellectual admiration as pure as their models. Even in their clothing there is something that is not terrestrial. One must see there elegance without elaboration, poverty without ugliness, and, if the subject demands it, pomp without magnificence. They are beautiful like temples."

"In all that architecture has of the great and eternally beautiful, it is completely a production of the religious spirit. From the ruins of Tentyra to St Peter's in Rome, all the monuments speak; the genius of architecture is really only at ease in temples. It is there that above caprice, fashion, pettiness, licence, and finally all the gnawing cares of talent, it works without discomfort for glory and immortality."

"Final causes or intentions are the torment of modern philosophy, which neglects nothing to get rid of them. From this, among other things, comes its great axiom: nature creates only individuals. Indeed, since all classification supposes order, this philosophy has denied classes to deny order. In order to establish this marvellous reasoning, it fixes its suspicious eyes on the differences between beings to dispense itself from turning them to their similarities. It does not want to recognize that nuances between classes and individuals constitute another order, and that diversity in resemblance supposes intention more visibly than mere resemblance."

"It is permitted to modern philosophy, all swollen up with Bacon's venom, to repeat to us to satiety, to disgust, to nausea, that we make God similar to man; we will reply as many times that is not quite the same thing to say that a man resembles his portrait or that his portrait resembles him."

"[Bacon's] philosophy resembles this religion, which protests continually: it is entirely negative and thinks only to contradict. In indulging himself without measure in this natural inclination, he ends by contradicting himself without perceiving it, and by insulting in others his own most characteristic traits. Thus he blames abstractions without respite, and he makes only abstractions, in always coming back to his middle, general, and most general axioms, and in maintaining that individual instances do not merit the philosopher's attention. He never ceases to shower abuse on the science of words, and he only makes words. He upsets all the received nomenclature to substitute for them new terms, baroque or poetic, or both. With Bacon, neologism is a real disease, and always he believes he has acquired an idea when he has invented a word. He looks with pity at the alchemy that was fully operative in his time, and all his physics is only another alchemy quite babbling and wholly similar to children who talk a lot and produce nothing, as he said very well and very badly with respect to the ancient Greeks."

"Christianity is the religion of Europe […] it is mingled with all our institutions […] it is the hand of this religion that fashioned these new nations [of Europe]. The cross is on all the crowns, all the codes begin with its symbol. The kings are anointed, the priests are magistrates, the priesthood is an order, the empire is sacred, the religion is civil. The two powers are merged; each lends the other part of its strength, and, despite the quarrels that have divided these two sisters, they cannot live separated."

"To overcome oneself, to submit to circumstances, is a duty for everyone, but especially for women. [...] A man, my dear child, is an animal. Unfortunately for your sex, extremely proud; but happily for this same sex, extremely foolish. It is necessary to use his foolishness against his pride. In ceding skilfully and with grace, it is necessary to make him believe that he will always be king. Then he is content to allow himself to be led. As soon as a woman cedes the sceptre, it is given back to her immediately. That is all there is to the catechism of this world. Never forget it. You know by heart the beatitudes of the Gospel; but it is not forbidden to know others, as, for example, Happy are mild women, for they will possess men. Submit therefore my dear Adèle; submit, caress, insinuate yourself; you will soon find some imbecile full of wit who will say in his heart: ‘Here is the one I need.’ If after you have wed he comes to discover that you are a bit impertinent, the evil is not great."

"A woman can only be superior as a woman; as soon as she wants to emulate man, she is nothing but an ape."

"Let your brother work hard at the French poets. Let him learn them by heart, especially the incomparable Racine; never mind whether he understands him yet or not. I didn't understand him when my mother used to come repeating his verses by my bedside, and lulled me to sleep with her fine voice to the sound of that inimitable music. I knew hundreds of lines long before I knew how to read; and it is thus that my ears, accustomed betimes to this ambrosia, have never since been able to endure any sourer draught."

"The contrast between us two [Maistre and his wife] is the very strangest in the world. For me, as you may have found out, I am the pococurante senator, and above all things very free in saying what I think. She, on the contrary, will take care that it is noon before allowing that the sun has risen, for fear of committing herself. She knows what must be done or what must not be done on the tenth of October 1808, at ten o'clock in the morning, to avoid some inconvenience which otherwise would come to pass at midnight between the fifteenth and sixteenth of March 1810. "But, my dear husband, you pay attention to nothing; you believe that nobody is thinking of any harm. Now I know, I have been told, I have guessed, I foresee, I warn you," etc. "Come now, my dear, leave me alone. You are only wasting your time: I foresee that I shall never foresee things: that's your business." She is the supplement to me, and hence when I am separated from her, as I am now, I suffer absurdly from being obliged to think about my own affairs; I would rather have to chop wood all day."

"Every nation gets the government it deserves."

"I don’t know what the life of a rascal is like since I have never been one, but that of an honest man is abominable. How few men are there whose passage on this stupid planet has been marked by really good and useful acts! I prostrate myself before the one of which one can say: pertransivit bene faciendo; the one who had been able to instruct, console, and relieve his fellows; the one who made great sacrifices for charity; these heroes of silent charity who hide themselves and expect nothing in this world. But what is the ordinary man? And how many are there in a thousand who can ask themselves without terror: what have I done in this world? In what way have I advanced the common good and what will remain of me of good or evil?"

"Maistre attached the highest importance to the ‘philosophy of style,’ and averred that he who knew not how to write was incapable of metaphysics. The violence that pervades his thought and rhetoric is a response to the primal experience of the ‘terrible truth of evil,’ while his style incarnates his sense of the mystery of history. By conveying his thought in what Baudelaire called ‘rockets,’ Maistre provoked his readers into a state of fascination and shock."

"Joseph de Maistre is another of those men whose word, like that of Burke, has vitality. In imaginative power he is altogether inferior to Burke. On the other hand his thought moves in closer order than Burke's, more rapidly, more directly; he has fewer superfluities. Burke is a great writer, but Joseph de Maistre's use of the French language is more powerful, more thoroughly satisfactory, than Burke's use of the English. It is masterly; it shows us to perfection of what that admirable instrument, the French language, is capable."

"De Maistre and Edgar Poe taught me how to think."

"Behind the classical mask, behind the classical façade, behind the air of the Grand Seigneur, behind the orthodox Thomism, behind the official complete subservience to the monarchy of his day, which was nothing very splendid or impressive, there is in Maistre something much wilder, much more romantic, much more terrifying. He reminds one of someone like d'Annunzio or Nietzsche – not to seek for later examples. In that way he resembled Rousseau. Just as Rousseau imposed a kind of Calvinist logical strait-jacket upon what was really a kind of burning private lunacy, so Maistre imposes an official legitimist Catholic framework upon what is really a deeply violent, deeply revolutionary inner passion."

"[Maistre's] style is strong, lively, picturesque; animation and good humour temper his dogmatic tone, and he might even be deemed eloquent. It is true he does not disdain paradox in his thinking or violence in his language: he has neither the moderation nor the serenity of Bossuet. But he possesses a wonderful facility in exposition, precision of doctrine, breadth of learning, and dialectical power. He influenced the age that followed him: he dealt Gallicanism such decisive blows that it never rose again. In a word, he was a great and virtuous man, a profound thinker, and one of the finest writers of that French language of which his works are a distinguished ornament."

"The very tension increased his imaginative power, infused his nervous and brilliant style. Here is no Hobbesian materialism, but something far more sensitive. For de Maistre is at heart a romantic, shuddering at the collapse of the aristocratic order to which he belonged, horrified at the blasphemy of philosophers who believed that man could make himself. […] Of all the figures who have contributed to the colourful tapestry of political ideas he is one of the most singular."

"[Maistre] fulminated as a littérateur, even as a grammarian, and his frenzies not only failed to diminish his passion for the correct and elegant formulation but augmented it even more. An epileptic temperament infatuated with the trifles of the Word: trances and boutades, convulsions and bagatelles, grace and a foaming mouth – everything combined to compose a pamphleteering universe at whose heart he harried ‘error’ with blows of invective, those ultimatums of impotence."

"De Maistre has for me the peculiar property of helping me to estimate the philosophie capacity of people, by the repute in which they hold him."

"[A] fierce absolutist, a furious theocrat, an intransigent legitimist, apostle of a monstrous trinity composed of pope, king and hangman, always and everywhere the champion of the hardest, narrowest and most inflexible dogmatism, a dark figure out of the Middle Ages, part learned doctor, part inquisitor, part executioner."

"That brief, nervous, lucid style, stripped of phrases, robust of limb, did not at all recall the softness of the eighteenth century, nor the declamations of the latest French books: it was born and steeped in the breath of the Alps; it was virgin, it was young, it was harsh and savage; it had no human respect, it felt its solitude; it improvised depth and form all at once… That man was new among the enfants du siècle [children of the century]."

"Few men knew so perfectly as he knew how to be touching without ceasing to be masculine, nor how to go down into the dark pits of human life without forgetting the broad sunlight, nor how to keep habitually close to visible and palpable fact while eagerly addicted to speculation."

"Maistre admired Burke and echoed him frequently."

"One of [Maistre's] favourite expressions, and one which he often used was point-blank. This was the secret of his tactics, this was his gesture; this was the way he acted; he advanced alone against a whole enemy army, mouthing his challenge, and shooting the leader point-blank. He attacks in glory, to triumph, and earns an excess of reprisals. In Rome’s spiritual distress, this was the Christian Scaevola, and the three hundred others did not follow."

"Joseph de Maistre is unquestionably one of the greatest thinkers and writers of the eighteenth century."

"Inexorable as to principles, tolerant and impartial as to persons."

"The epoch of individuality is concluded, and it is the duty of reformers to initiate the epoch of association. Collective man is omnipotent upon the earth he treads."

"Art does not imitate, but interpret. It searches out the idea lying dormant in the symbol, in order to present the symbol to men in such form as to enable them to penetrate through it to the idea. Were it otherwise, what would be the use or value of art?"

"Nature is for art the garb of the Eternal. The real is the finite expression and representation of the true ; forms are the limits affixed by time and space to the power of life. Nature, reality, and form, should, all of them, be so rendered and expressed by art, as to reveal to mankind some ray of the truth — a vaster and profounder sentiment of life."

"Art is not the fancy or caprice of an individual. It is the mighty voice of God and the universe, as heard by the chosen spirit, and repeated in tones of harmony to mankind. Should that omnipotent voice strike too directly upon the mortal ear, it would stun and suspend all human action, even as Pantheism crushed the ancient Oriental world."

"Art is no isolated, unconnected, or inexplicable phenomenon. It draws its life from the life of the universe, and with the universe it ascends from epoch to epoch towards the Almighty. It owes its power over the souls of men to that collective life — even as the trees and plants draw their life from earth, the common mother; and its power would be destroyed should it attempt to forsake its source."

"Ideas grow quickly when watered with the blood of martyrs."

"The mother's first kiss teaches the child love; the first holy kiss of the woman he loves teaches man hope and faith in life."

"Every mission constitutes a pledge of duty. Every man is bound to consecrate his every faculty to its fulfilment. He will derive his rule of action from the profound conviction of that duty."

"One sole God; One sole ruler, — his Law; One sole interpreter of that law — Humanity."

"Hope nothing from foreign governments. They will never be really willing to aid you until you have shown that you are strong enough to conquer without them."

"Your first duties-first as regards importance-are, as I have already told you, towards Humanity. You are men before you are either citizens or fathers. If you do not embrace the whole human family in your affection, if you do not bear witness to your belief in the Unity of that family, consequent upon the Unity of God...if, wheresoever a fellow-creature suffers, or the dignity of human nature is violated by falsehood or tyranny-you are not ready, if able, to aid the unhappy, and do not feel called upon to combat, if able, for the redemption of the betrayed or oppressed-you violate your law of life, you comprehend not that Religion which will be the guide and blessing of the future."

"Country is not a mere zone of territory. The true country is the Idea to which it gives birth; it is the Thought of love, the sense of communion which unites in one all the sons of that territory."

"So long as a single one amongst your brothers has no vote to represent him in the development of the national life, so long as a single man, able and willing to work, languishes in poverty through want of work to do, you have no country in the sense in which country ought to exist-the country of all and for all."

"So long as you are ready to die for Humanity, the life of your country is immortal."

"The new claim on the part of the toiling multitude, the new sense of responsibility on the part of the well-to-do, arise in reality from the same source. They are in fact the same “social compunction,” and, in spite of their widely varying manifestations, logically converge into the same movement. Mazzini once preached, “the consent of men and your own conscience are two wings given you whereby you may rise to God.” It is so easy for the good and powerful to think that they can rise by following the dictates of conscience by pursuing their own ideals, leaving those ideals unconnected with the consent of their fellowmen."

"I encountered the influence of Mazzini, which was a source of great comfort to me...To me personally the celebration of the hundredth anniversary of Mazzini's birth was a matter of great interest. Throughout the world that day Italians who believed in a United Italy came together. They recalled the hopes of this man who, with all his devotion to his country, was still more devoted to humanity and who dedicated to the workingmen of Italy, an appeal so philosophical, so filled with a yearning for righteousness, that it transcended all national boundaries and became a bugle call for "The Duties of Man.""

"Mazzini despised the compromises of the "whigs" and would have no truck with the diplomacy of a Cavour. Yet he came to admit that the programme of insurrections upon which he built his faith implied the sacrifice of a generation. Disdaining immediate objects, reaching far into the future—working for all or nothing—he pointed to the reward that would be enjoyed not by his contemporaries, not by their children perhaps, but at least (let us say) by their grandchildren. Unfortunately, at this very point—in the passage from one generation to another—history seems in a particular way to intervene and to deflect the results of human endeavour; so that we may doubt whether this attempt to overreach Time itself is the proper kind of far-sightedness to have in politics. Apart from new factors that may change the course of the story, there is a process which may give efficacy to the ideas of a Mazzini precisely in so far as these ideas can be made to serve the cause of power; and it is not entirely irrelevant that though Mazzini was no Fascist he did attack the individualism of 1789, and he taught young men to sink themselves—to intoxicate themselves—in the Organic People. One of the things that may happen therefore in the transition to a new generation is the possibility that Mazzini's whole doctrine—and his glorification of nationality—when mixed with a little earth and entangled in a world of tricks and chances, will form but the raw material for the next Mussolini that may arise."

"I have the duty before the conscience of my country and to defend the vitality of my people to speak as an Italian, but I feel the responsibility and the right to speak also as an anti-fascist democrat, as a representative of the new Republic that, harmonising in itself the humanitarian aspirations of Giuseppe Mazzini ([an Italian 33rd degree Scottish Rite Freemason]), the universalist conceptions of Christianity and the internationalist hopes of the workers, is all directed towards that lasting and reconstructive peace that you seek and towards that cooperation between peoples that you have the task of establishing."

"I doubt whether any man of his generation exercised so profound an influence on the destinies of Europe as did Mazzini. The map of Europe as we see it to-day is the map of Joseph Mazzini. He was the prophet of free nationality, but free nationality based on right, based above all on duty—the rights and duties of individuals, the rights and duties of races, the rights and duties and ideals of humanity."

"The liberation movements of the last eighty years, not merely in Italy, but throughout Europe, were inspired by his fervent teaching. It was the thrill which came from his words that gave nerve and power and courage and daring to the men who were struggling for the emancipation of the oppressed nationalities of Europe. He said in one of his books, "We are on the threshold of a great age, the age of the peoples." His doctrines, his ideals, his example, fired the hearts that led the peoples across the threshold into the new age. Italy has crossed it; the oppressed nations of Turkey have been emancipated; the oppressed races of Austria and Russia, and let me frankly add, Ireland, have gained by the doctrines of Joseph Mazzini. The glittering Imperial fabric reared by Bismarck is humbled in the dust, but the dreams of this young man, who came over as an exile to England and lived in poverty here for years, dependent on the charity of friends, and armed only with a pen, have now become startling realities throughout the whole Continent. Here, after he has been lying for fifty years in the soil he loved so well, we find in the reconstruction of Europe the great principles of Mazzini—the emancipation of races on the basis of freedom—converted into a treaty and into action. He taught not merely the rights of a nation; he taught the rights of other nations; not merely the right of your own nation to be free, but the right of the next nation to be equally free. We have learned half the lesson of Mazzini, and whether this age is the "Golden Age" predicted by Mazzini depends entirely upon the extent to which we learn the other half of his lesson."

"His was an age of fierce hatreds. I wish I could say this was not an age of fierce hatreds also. Mazzini said you can build nothing that lasts upon hate. Hate, he said, will destroy ultimately the very thing that you love. Mazzini said: "I want free nations; I want a Europe of free nations; but I do not want a Europe of free nations hating each other; I want a Europe of free nations that will be a brotherhood of peoples." He is the father of the idea of the League of Nations."

"There are men who blame Mazzini for the present position of things. He is not responsible for the frenzied nationalism which is the peril of to-day, the extravagant nationalism, the nationalism which has no respect for the rights of others. Mazzini never taught that. His career was an embodiment and a symbol of the good feeling and good understanding that exists between British and Italian democracies. He called this his "second country." Here he found refuge, protection, encouragement, support, friendship."

"Lost golden ages can be a very effective tool for motivating people in the present. “Unity was and is the destiny of Italy,” Giuseppe Mazzini, the great nineteenth- century Italian nationalist, urged the divided peninsula. “The civil primacy, twice exercised by Italy—through the arms of the Caesars and the voice of the Popes—is destined to be held a third time by the people of Italy— the nation.” Mazzini was also a liberal who believed that a world filled by self-governing peoples would be a happy, democratic, and peaceful one yet there was an ominous tone to his exhortations: “They who were unable forty years ago to perceive the signs of progress toward unity made in the successive periods of Italian life, were simply blind to the light of History. But should any, in the lace of the actual glorious manifestation of our people, endeavour to lead them back to ideas of confederations, and independent provincial liberty, they would deserve to be branded as traitors to their country.” A great past can be a promise, but it can also be a terrible burden. Mussolini promised the Italians a second Roman Empire and led them to disaster in World War II."

"We who have seen Italia in the throes, Half risen but to be hurled to ground, and now, Like a ripe field of wheat where once drove plough, All bounteous as she is fair, we think of those Who blew the breath of life into her frame: Cavour, Mazzini, Garibaldi: Three: Her Brain, her Soul, her Sword; and set her free ruinous discords, with one lustrous aim."

"Of Mazzini we may truly say what he said himself of Father Paul, the historian of the Council of Trent, that he was two distinct beings. He was sower of the seed, the indefatigable organiser, the conspirator, on behalf of the idea that he had invented and brought to life, of United Italy. Besides his ceaseless industry in this vexed sphere of action, his was the moral genius that spiritualised politics, and gave a new soul to public duty in citizens and nations. As practical statesman, when we have applauded him for the exalting political conception which his energy, ardour, and fire forced upon Italy and Europe, we have perhaps said all."

"[H]e stood for the voice of conscience in modern democracy. Of all the democratic gospellers of that epoch between 1848 and 1870...it was Mazzini who went nearest to the heart and true significance of democracy. He had a moral glow, and the light of large historic and literary comprehension, that stretched it into the foremost place in the minds of men with social imagination enough to look for new ideals, and courage enough to resist the sluggard's dread of new illusions. He pressed his finger on the People's intellectual pulse and warned them against the feverish beats that came from words and phrases passed off as ideas, or, still more dangerous, from fragments of an idea treated as if they were the idea whole. He warned them that human history is not a thing of disconnected fragments, and that recollection of great moves and great men in the past is needed to keep us safe on the heights of future and present. He did more; though figuring as restorer of a single nation, he was as earnest as Kant himself in urging the moral relations between different States, and the supremacy and overlordship of cosmopolitan humanity."

"I realized that if my friends and followers were to read Mazzini’s articles that will increase their faith in our methods enormously. In 1906, I and my colleagues in Abhinav Bharat were hardly twenty to twenty-two years of age. Our leaders, both Moderates and Militants dismissed our activities as ‘childish’. They were the leaders of our society at that time. But then Mazzini and his fellow revolutionaries were similarly ridiculed as ‘childish’ and ‘absurd’ by contemporary elders in Italian society in 1830s. Mazzini had replied to such ridicule in his articles. The funny thing was that in 1906 persons like Mazzini and Garibaldi were regarded as ‘great patriots’ by Indian leaders without realizing that in their days Mazzini and Garibaldi too were being branded as ‘foolhardy’ and ‘childish’. Mazzini’s articles were going to make firm our plans of action and induce faith among people of India in our methods."

"Italy would remember for ever the wonderful hospitality accorded by the English people to the great Italian exiles who had been the principal actors in the drama of their long national struggle towards freedom and unity. Mazzini's teaching was never more applicable than in these critical days when Europe was still suffering from the consequences of the Great War and was desperately striving to find its moral, political, and economic equilibrium, and to restart towards a reconstruction, not only of its shaken financial resources, but of its fundamental spirit of peace. He was proud and happy to affirm that both their countries, in close connexion with their Allies, were determined to try to accomplish that moral and economic settlement of Europe towards which the teachings of Mazzini pointed with the religious fervour of an apostle and a prophet."

"Perhaps of all men who have ever borne a great part in politics Mazzini was most entirely patriot. Through forty years of incessant thought, teaching, and action, in hiding or at the head of a revolutionary government, an idol or a denounced fugitive, in all countries and by all roads he pressed forward towards the same object, the transfer of Italy, once more united, from its foreign or semi-foreign despots to the sway of a freely elected Sovereign Assembly, which, as he trusted or believed, would be guided by something difficult to distinguish from direct inspiration from above. That he changed his means frequently is true, and that he sometimes subordinated means to ends can hardly be denied, for he was that rare character, a practical ideologue."

"In truth, he was neither anarchist nor Jacobin, nor even Revolutionist, but a calm and serene teacher and leader, a prophet possessed with a faith and absorbed in an object, who swayed men by the force of his ideas, the holiness of his life, and the unique loftiness of his character steadily onward towards an end which was not always theirs... This influence, rising in some cases to an ascendancy such as has hardly been given to the greatest religious teachers, was employed unswervingly for his single end, and it was employed successfully. Cavour made Italy, but it was due to Mazzini, and not to Cavour, that such making was possible."

"The idea of the powerless lawyer had penetrated an entire people, and Italy stood up unfettered and alive. In modern history no man armed only with spiritual weapons, strong only in his cause, his genius, and his character, has ever performed such a feat, or made so deep a personal impression on the history of mankind... It is among the greater Popes that we must seek for the analogue of Joseph Mazzini, the serene man possessed of and by a faith, who could use all weapons, and mould all men, and disregard all circumstances; whose gentleness was as inflexible as other men’s obstinacy; to whom earthly temptations had no meaning and earthly scruples no force; who could not pause, or change, or tremble, and who therefore at once achieved the lofty success and roused the undying hatreds which attend the course of the man who lives for an idea. Unstirred by the ordinary ambitions of men and unaffected by their ordinary passions, an ascetic by habit rather than conviction, incapable of envy as of doubt, irresistible in his power over hearts, which he used only to further his great cause; personally as gentle as a woman, but for his ideas implacable as a statue; eloquent with the eloquence which can persuade an individual or a Senate, yet averse to life in public; never induced even by his own genius to swerve for a moment from his appointed course; an immovable fanatic, with all the knowledge and all the tact of a finished grandee, Joseph Mazzini was what in the Roman Catholic ideal every Pope should be."

"It is as plain now that Mazzini was the greatest moral force in Europe during the nineteenth century... We must go back to Dante to find an Italian who had, like Mazzini, the combination of vivid practical intellect with a highly sensitive, even mystical, spirituality... As Dante spoke for the medieval world, so Mazzini is thus far Europe's most authentic spokesman of the ideals and hopes of our new epoch."

"We have to announce to-day the death of a man who in his time has played a most singular part upon the theatre of European politics; one whose name has for years been regarded as the symbol of Revolution, or rather of Republicanism; one in whose personal character there were many fine and noble qualities; but still a man who was feared even more widely than he was loved, and one whose departure from the scene of action, to say the least, will be no unwelcome news to several crowned and discrowned members of the family of European Sovereigns. He was the man who ever "troubled Israel" by his ceaseless efforts in the cause of Republicanism, and now at length he is at rest."

"In our own day classics have been dethroned without being replaced. But throughout the seventeenth, eighteenth and nineteenth centuries our statesmen were so brought up that they thought of Rome as the hearth of their political civilization, where their predecessor Cicero had denounced Catiline; where the models of their own eloquence and statecraft, as taught them at Eton, Harrow and Winchester, had been practised and brought to perfection. And, therefore, the ruins of the Forum were as familiar, as sacred, and as moving to Russell and to Gladstone as to Mazzini and Garibaldi themselves. This was a prime fact in the history of the Risorgimento."

"He does not exalt the individual at the expense of the nation, like the disciples of Rousseau; nor the nation at the expense of the individual, as was the tendency of Hegel; nor humanity at the expense of both, as was the incurable aberration of Comte. Recognising that each of these has its peculiar function, he recognises no less fully that no one of them can put forth its energies without the others; that each of them is conditioned absolutely by the others; and that only to the most limited extent is it possible to mark off the sphere in which each operates even in partial independence of the others."

"Now it can hardly be doubted that the earliest writer to give its due place to nationality was Mazzini. He felt, as few men have felt, the force of the popular sentiment in this matter. He was alive also to its limitations. To him the nation is not, as it is to many, an end in itself. It is strictly a link in the chain between the individual on the one side and humanity on the other. He recognises, as no previous writer had done, what may be called the personality of the nation. He proclaims its right, or rather its obligation, both to defend itself against all encroachment, whether material or moral, from without, and to develop its inborn faculties to the highest possible pitch from within. He thus gives satisfaction to all that is either valid or worth having in the claims of nationality. At the same time, he marks out the limits beyond which the instinct of nationality becomes dangerous, or even harmful. He denies that it is a final and absolute principle. He persistently subordinates it to the larger claims of humanity. This at once bars out the possibility of any right to aggression as between one nation and another. It subjects all nations alike to the common ties which bind the members of one brotherhood, mankind. By the same stroke, Mazzini gives the only valid sanction to the real rights of nationality. He declares the free development of the national spirit to be essential to the true life of humanity. So far as it serves that end, it is nothing but good. As soon as it throws itself athwart that end, it becomes an enormous evil."

"I am very much moved, sir, to be in the presence of this monument. On the other side of the water we have studied the life of Mazzini with almost as much pride as if we shared in the glory of his history, and I am very glad to acknowledge that his spirit has been handed down to us of a later generation on both sides of the water. It is delightful to me to feel that I am taking some small part in accomplishing the realization of the ideals to which his life and thought were devoted. It is with a spirit of veneration, sir, and with a spirit I hope of emulation, that I stand in the presence of this monument and bring my greetings and the greetings of America with our homage to the great Mazzini."

"In a way it seems natural for an American to be a citizen of Genoa, and I shall always count it among the most delightful associations of my life that you should have conferred this honor upon me, and in taking away this beautiful edition of the works of Mazzini I hope that I shall derive inspiration from these volumes, as I have already derived guidance from the principles which Mazzini so eloquently expressed. It is very inspiring, sir, to feel how the human spirit is refreshed again and again from its original sources. It is delightful to feel how the voice of one people speaks to another through the mouth of men who have by some gift of God been lifted above the common level and seen the light of humanity, and therefore these words of your prophet and leader will, I hope, be deeply planted in the hearts of my fellow countrymen."

"[ ... ] The First World War had to be fought in order to allow the “Illuminati” to overthrow the power of the tsars in Russia and transform this country into the stronghold of atheistic communism. The differences stirred up by the agents of the “Illuminati” between the British and German empires were used to foment this war. After the war ended, communism had to be built up and used to destroy other governments and weaken religions."

"Un magistrato deve essere imparziale quando esercita le sue funzioni ma io confesso che non mi sento del tutto imparziale. Anzi, mi sento partigiano, sono un partigiano della Costituzione."

"Azione Civile è un movimento civico puro, fuori dai partiti, che oggi avvia una campagna di adesione aperta ai cittadini che credono in questo progetto per radicarsi sul territorio."

"Today we have a more civilized mafia and a more mafia-like society. A mafia that increasingly wears suits and ties and a society that changes its clothes too many times a day and chooses to disguise itself. In short, we have entire sections of society that have now internalized the behavioral models of mafiosi. And you can see it in all areas."

"(About the ideal government) I am a candidate for Prime Minister, so I will be the president of the Council and also take on the role of interim Minister of Justice. Travaglio would be an excellent choice for the Ministry of Information, as he is outside the political sphere, while I would put Fiorella Mannoia in charge of Culture. Then I would put the economist w:it:Vladimiro Giacché in charge of the Economy, a worker in charge of Labor, and a police officer in charge of the Interior. We need competent people, not like Castelli, who was an engineer, and Carfagna, let's not even go there..."

"As a people, we have been stripped of monetary sovereignty, but not only monetary sovereignty. We have been stripped of financial sovereignty, we have been stripped of political sovereignty. We are subjects, we are not sovereign in our own country. [...] And this lack of sovereignty, this expropriation of sovereignty, is not an accident, it is not a coincidence. It is part of a precise plan, which is not only Italian [...]. I believe that it is a rearguard battle to say, “We want another Europe, we will build another Europe”: within these institutions and within this Europe, another Europe is impossible. We must tear down this Europe, as it is today, as it is constructed, with its institutions and the primacy of finance over politics that has been established. [...] We must withdraw from the European treaties."

"(About Pietro Grasso) He was a magistrate of great experience, courage, and professional ability, but it must be remembered that he became national anti-Mafia prosecutor thanks to a law passed ad personam by Silvio Berlusconi, which excluded Gian Carlo Caselli, who had more qualifications than Pietro Grasso. Grasso himself said in a famous interview that the Berlusconi government deserved a special award for its anti-Mafia activities. Pietro Grasso is certainly not left-wing, nor has he ever been in his brief forays into politics. Even when Caselli was appointed prosecutor of Palermo in 1992, Grasso was his opponent, the candidate of the then Minister of Justice Martelli. Therefore, he did not have a left-wing position, as the founders of Liberi e Uguali do. He was then supported by the Berlusconi government against Caselli. [...] Grasso has always taken a very cautious stance on many of the Palermo prosecutor's initiatives. He did not want to sign the Palermo prosecutor's appeal against the acquittal of Andreotti in the first instance. When he was my boss, he was very lukewarm about the investigations I had carried out into criminal networks, the State-Mafia negotiations, and the Dell'Utri trial. He has always been a prudent man, legitimately so, but also a cautious magistrate."

"Borsellino once, we were at his house in Marsala one evening, so before he even arrived in Palermo, I remember it clearly even though he didn't give me any precise explanations about it, he said to me, and I quote: "w:it:Pietro Giammanco is a man of Lima," a statement that obviously upset me."

"I would define the case De Magistris as emblematic of what happens when a magistrate finds himself isolated and overexposed, managing an extremely complex and delicate investigation into a tangle of legal and illegal interests involving diverse individuals and circles, on the cusp where criminal, political, and institutional spheres meet. As often happens in areas where integrated criminal systems operate. And I am referring, of course, to the criminal systems associated with the mafia in Sicily and the 'ndrangheta in Calabria."

"The union between occult powers and the mafia is the famous “big game” that Giovanni Falcone was working on. And for which he probably died: and the real instigators of the Capaci bombing have never been found."

"As far as we have been able to ascertain, De Magistris' investigation went far beyond what has become widely known. It went well beyond the wiretapping of Clemente Mastella or the inclusion of Romano Prodi in the register of suspects. I believe that the core of the investigation was precisely the intertwining of criminal powers and other powers in the area. I believe that his case cannot be addressed without taking into account the reality in which De Magistris, often in institutional isolation, operated."

"(About the takeover of the ‘Why Not’ investigation) De Magistris calls it illegitimate, I call it unthinkable. [...] My feeling is that we found ourselves in a situation where autonomy and independence, both internal and external, reached a breaking point. We are truly in a moment of crisis for the rule of law."

"For some time now, the Constitution has been under attack in some fundamental areas. The autonomy and independence of the judiciary has been under constant siege for years, as has the principle of equality. Article 3 of the Constitution, thanks in part to an upright judiciary, has not remained an abstract principle. All the most recent bills, however, aim to create a two-tiered justice system: efficient and harsh with the weak, soft and sluggish with the powerful. A justice system that ensures impunity for the powerful."

"(About the law on the so-called “short trial”) Should be defined as: the law of the short death of trials. It is right to ensure speedy trials, but here we have a trial that remains long and only sets a maximum time limit that can never be met. We need a reform of the justice system that shortens the timeframes but gives the judiciary human and operational resources and funding. There are 30 percent shortages in the public prosecutor's offices in Palermo and Catania, cuts in funding for overtime for staff and court clerks. Hearings are only held in the morning. At full speed, the timeframes would be halved."

"In the international community, the Holy See also has the mission of ensuring that the interdependence between people and nations be developed in a moral and ethical dimension, as well as in the other dimensions and various aspects that relations are acquiring in today's world. One must never tire of encouraging dialogue at all levels, always seeking diplomatic solutions."

"The Pope has placed before us a beautiful goal, this universal brotherhood, which logically, includes women and men, for Saint Francis did not exclude anyone! It is a commitment that begins to daily life, in the relationships that each of us have, and then extends it to the areas of professional or social commitment where we find ourselves, at whatever level. Logically, in the current situation, this is not easy, we cannot hide it and be naïve, but we have a goal and a great hope, for which we are also responsible. Moreover, I have faith that if we try to do our small part, God will do the rest if we let Him."

"The Council of Europe has always had the vocation of being the “common European home” and has been able to develop his vocation in the decades since its creation, as its current broad representation testifies. A home that, if it has been a faithful mirror of the divisions and difficulties between the different national communities, has also been able to be, above all, an expression of Europe’s courage for unity, often foreshadowing what could later be built, in other respects and in other areas, such as the European Union."

"Peace does not impose itself automatically, by itself, but is the result of the will of men."

"War is a voracious monster, never satiated."

"Thank you very much Mr President (Xi Jinping) for such a warm and friendly welcome. I am delighted to meet you again. I have wonderful memories of my first visit to China, seven years ago, and of your visit to Italy five years ago. I am still grateful to you for visiting my Region, Sicily. I considered it a gesture of friendship for which I am grateful to you. When we met in Rome you asked me to return to China in the year we celebrated 50 years of diplomatic relations. Unfortunately what happened later with the pandemic, with the suffering we all suffered, prevented us from doing so. But since friendship is also about remembrance, it is about keeping commitments and keeping promises, I am happy to be here again in China to reaffirm our friendship, our desire for growing cooperation."

"Finally, I had followed the surprising career of Piersanti Mattarella [brother of the Italian President Mattarella]. His career developed in the shadow of his powerful father Bernardo, who was a minister several times and a great collector of votes and friendships, some of which were compromising, in Castellammare del Golfo, in western Sicily, home to the most ruthless mafia. [...] We must not betray our origins if they have brought us privileges and benefits. And Piersanti had unfortunately forgotten that he was the eldest son of Bernardo and his vows."

"There are reasonable grounds to believe that the threshold indicating the commission of the crime of genocide against Palestinians as a group in Gaza has been met."

"The overwhelming nature and scale of Israel’s assault on Gaza and the destructive conditions of life it has inflicted reveal an intent to physically destroy Palestinians as a group."

"I do believe that the ICC arrest warrants constitute a historical decision. It is the first time that (these are against) leaders who are considered Western, because Israel is part of the Western bloc … It is important to advance the application of international law, especially when there are atrocity crimes."

"I will not give time to people who use the label of antisemitism to attack those who criticise Israel for its appalling human rights records – those people are not concerned with addressing real antisemitism, which is something that very much exists and is revolting."

"I call for these top EU officials, and others, to face charges of complicity of war crimes over their support for Israel’s 19 month of assault on Gaza. This cannot be met with impunity."

"Israel commits crimes like it breathes. The only way to protect not only Palestinians, but also Israelis, is to stop it. It is a threat to peace and security."

"While political leaders and governments shirk their obligations, far too many corporate entities have profited from Israel’s economy of illegal occupation, apartheid and, now, genocide."

"Italian, French and Greek citizens deserve to know that every political action violating the int’l legal order, weakens and endangers all of them. And all of us."

"Francesca Albanese is the good"

"I don't know if you heard about Francesca Albanese (..) US shoud apply sanctions against her. She shouldn't be allowed entering the United States of America. She comes once a month to promote hate, to go to universities, and you know she compared our prime minister Netanyahu to Hitler; and she compare your president to orrible leaders. That's unacceptable and I expect the new administration to be stronger on this issue."

"Albanese's campaign of political and economic warfare against the United States and Israel will no longer be tolerated."

"In reality, I was working with Vittorio Occorsio on several cases of kidnapping for ransom, including the Danesi kidnapping, the Ortolani kidnapping, the Andreuzzi kidnapping, [the kidnapping] Francisci kidnapping, and I remember perfectly well that a few days earlier he had asked me to issue several arrest warrants against the defendants; one of these defendants was a member of the P2 Lodge. He had also identified links between kidnappers, black terrorists, and members of the P2 Lodge, and had expressed his concerns. He had a great deal of experience because he had already investigated part of the trial for the Piazza Fontana massacre. At first, he had been misled, unfortunately by the secret services, but then he had got back on the right track. I also remember that on the morning he was killed, half an hour before the murder, I called him to ask his opinion on a request for provisional release that had been submitted by a defendant who was a member of P2, and he told me that he would express a negative opinion."

"(Regarding Antonio Ingroia's political candidacy}} Fairness is the first rule that a magistrate must follow. In the specific case of the former deputy prosecutor of Palermo, with an investigation involving the mafia such as the one he has just left behind, the situation is even more delicate. [...] The Sicilian magistrate's decision not only raises suspicions that the entire operation was merely a ploy to enter politics, but also risks undermining the credibility of the entire team of people who worked with him."

"The KGB was directly involved in the kidnapping of Moro. Cossiga and Andreotti knew where he was being held prisoner, but prevented General Dalla Chiesa from intervening. Falcone and Borsellino? The Gladio and the CIA were involved in those incidents. [...] The CIA was the armed wing of this policy, which sought by all means to eliminate a figure who jeopardized the security of the Western bloc and could cause communists to infiltrate the Italian government. Moreover, the CIA controlled the Italian secret services, as Maletti [former SISDE general] has publicly admitted. The CIA financed them with a budget of $500 million per year. [...] Of course, it also financed Gladio. The CIA even bought the Gladio base in Sardinia [the Capo Marrargiu training center]. [...] Yes, Cossiga and Andreotti knew. There is a document dated March 2, 1978, which I only learned about 25 years later and which I publish in my book as proof. Dalla Chiesa also learned of Moro's place of imprisonment and, from early April, wanted to intervene to free him. When the base in Via Gradoli was burned down, it was done precisely to prevent Dalla Chiesa from intervening. The general was ordered to abandon the camp, then he talked about it with the journalist Mino Pecorelli, who wrote about it. Both knew and both were killed."

"I am not a member of the M5S, but I find the attacks on Grillo exaggerated and unfair. He has denounced the paralysis and impotence of Parliament, which cannot be denied. Parliament, as the body that passes laws for the common good, does not actually exist. This is a bitter reality, not an insult to Parliament. Laura Boldrini should not take offense, she should take note. I would like to know what laws Parliament has passed in its first few months! And what laws it is discussing that affect young people and employment. None! The fake law that sought resources by repealing public funding of political parties is not due to come into force until 2017! Shameful!"

"The murder of Moro was carried out by the Red Brigades, but also and above all at the behest of Giulio Andreotti, Francesco Cossiga and Undersecretary w:it:Nicola Lettieri."

"President Napolitano, democracy is majority rule that respects the rights of the opposition, not tyranny of the majority that disregards the opposition, as is currently the case. Among the functions of the President of the Republic provided for in Article 87 of the Constitution, there is no provision for accusing the opposition of sectarianism. I thank the M5S for its fair and responsible opposition and its battles in defense of equal social rights, decent work, law enforcement, the independence of the judiciary, public education, and political ethics."

"The history of massacres originates in the events that took place at the end of the Second World War with the clash between two opposing blocs. [...] Our country, in the Yalta partition, became a kind of American colony, a nation with limited sovereignty due to interference from overseas. [...] New allies gathered around the hegemonic interests of the USA, happy to endorse or implement the strategy of tension in Italy. Alongside the OSS, the CIA, and the secret services, there were Ordine Nuovo, republicans, the Christian Democratic right, Vatican hierarchies, American Freemasonry, the Propaganda 2 lodge, part of the armed forces and the Interior Ministry apparatus, which were sometimes joined by openly criminal organizations such as the Mafia, Camorra, 'ndrangheta and Banda della Magliana."

"Ferdinando Imposimato, La repubblica delle stragi impunite, Newton Compton, Roma, 2013. ISBN 978-88-541-5499-5"

"God is patient and long-suffering because He is strong: being almighty, He does not become angry or seek revenge, because everything is subject to Him. He is gentle, good by nature, that is, generous with His riches, but, because of our faults, just in His punishment. He waits for man to repent, but then condemns him if he remains obstinate."

"O great God! What moved you then to wait so long for me, far from you, if not your essential goodness, since all your ways are reduced to mercy and truth? To my rebellions, you opposed infinite patience; to my departures, a most gentle kindness; to the offences against you, the sighs of your living, generous and paternal Heart. Finally, You extended Your hand of help to my unhappy falls. You saw my humiliation and my pains, and then Your mercy triumphed, for in humiliation You raise the mountains of Your grace. And the first fruit of your grace was to inspire in me an ardent, irrepressible, insatiable desire for You, truth, light, food, peace of man, Your creature."

"[Last words] My only desire is to see Mary, who saved me and will save me from the clutches of Satan."

"I felt my heart bursting. In such darkness of soul, a friendly voice seemed to whisper in my ear those words that I myself had read and that my holy friend, now deceased, often repeated to me: If you seek salvation, spread the Rosary. These are Mary's promises."

"Those who propagate the Rosary are saved! This thought was like a flash of lightning breaking the darkness of a stormy night. Satan, who held me captive as his prey, saw his defeat and forced me even more into his infernal coils. It was the last struggle, a desperate struggle."

"With the audacity of despair, I raised my face and hands to Heaven and turned to the heavenly Virgin: "If it is true," I cried, "that you promised Saint Dominic that those who propagate the Rosary will be saved, I will be saved, because I will not leave this Earth without having propagated your Rosary here.""

"O august Queen of victories, Virgin who reignest in paradise, whose mighty name causes heaven to rejoice and hell to tremble, glorious Queen of the most holy Rosary, we, thy happy children chosen by thy goodness in this century to build thee a temple at Pompeii, kneeling at thy feet on this solemn day to commemorate thy latest triumphs on the spot where idols and demons were formerly worshipped, pour out with tears the feelings of our hearts and with a filial confidence lay before thee our miseries. From that throne of mercy where thou sittest as Queen, Mary, turn down thy pitiful eyes on us, on our families, on Italy, on Europe, and the whole Church; take into pity the afflictions which overwhelm us and the cares which embitter our lives. Thou seest, O Mother, how many dangers of soul and body, how many calamities and afflictions press upon us. O Mother, keep back the arm of justice of thy indignant Son, and conquer by thy mercy the hearts of sinners, since they are our brethren and thy children, redeemed through the blood of our sweet Jesus and through the wounds of thy most tender heart pierced with the sword. Show thyself to all in this day, as thou art, the Queen of peace and mercy"

"It is but too true that we, although thy children, are the first who crucify Jesus in our hearts and wound anew thy heart by our sins. We confess it, we deserve the severest chastisements; yet remember how thou didst receive, on the top of Golgotha, the last drops of that divine blood, and the testament of our dying Redeemer. And this testament of a God, sealed with the blood of a Man-God, appointed thee our Mother, the Mother of sinners. Thus, as our Mother, thou art our Advocate and our Hope. To thee, amidst sighs, do we lift up our hands, crying for mercy! Have pity, good mother, have pity on us, on our souls, on our families, on our relations, on our friends, on our departed brethren, above all, on our enemies, and on so many who claim the name of Christians, yet wound the loving heart of thy Son. Pity, Mother, we now implore thee for pity on the erring nations, on all Europe, on the whole world, that they may repair repentant to thy heart. Be merciful to all, Mother of mercy."

"What does it cost thee, Mary, to hear us? What does it cost thee to save us? Did not Jesus entrust to thy hands all the treasures of his graces and mercies? Thou sittest as Queen at the right hand of thy Son, crowned with immortal glory, above all the choirs of angels. Thou extendest thy dominion as far as the heavens expand; the earth and all the creatures that people it are subject to thee. Thy power even reaches Hell, and thou alone, Mary, canst rescue us from the devil’s grasp. Thou art almighty by grace, and therefore thou canst save us. Now if you sayest thou willest not help us because we are ungrateful children and unworthy of thy protection, tell us at least to whom shall we have recourse in order to be released from so many evils? Oh! No, thy maternal heart will never bear to see the ruin of thy children. The divine Child we behold on thy knees, the mystical crown we admire in thy hand, both inspire us with hope that we will be heard. And full of confidence in thee, we throw ourselves at thy feet, we trust ourselves as feeble children into the arms of the tenderest amongst mothers, and today, this very day, we expect from thee the graces we are longing for."

"Let us ask Mary for her blessing. We now ask of thee, O Queen, a last favor which thou canst not refuse on this solemn day. Grant to all of us thy constant love and in a special manner thy maternal blessing. No, we will not leave thy feet today nor cease clasping thy knees till thou hast blessed us. Bless now, Mary, the sovereign Pontiff. To the first laurels of thy crown, to the ancient trophies of the Rosary, whence thou art called Queen of victories, add also this one, Mother, grant triumph to religion and peace to mankind. Bless our bishop, the priests and particularly those who promote the honor of thy Sanctuary; bless finally all those who are associated to thy new temple of Pompeii and who practice and spread devotion to thy most holy rosary. O blessed rosary of Mary, sweet chain which unites us to God, bond of love, which connects us with the angels, tower of safety against the assaults of hell, sure harbor in the universal shipwreck, never more shall we part with thee; thou shall be our comfort in the hour of agony: to thee the last kiss of our life; and the last word of our dying lips shall be thy sweet name, Queen of the Rosary of the Valley of Pompeii. Mother dear, only refuge of sinners, supreme comforter of the afflicted, blessed be thy name, now and forever, on earth and in heaven. Amen."

"Bartolo Longo, in homage to the Madonna and the Sanctuary of Pompeii, took in 135 orphan girls and 70 children of prisoners, training them in arts suited to them and in agriculture, mixing asceticism and fetishism for the Madonna modernity in the extensive use of advertising, reports and photographs, and thus managing to place some of the orphan girls in kind and honest families."

"Bartolo Longo, Storia del santuario di Pompei dedicato alla Vergine SS. del Rosario, volume I, Scuola tipografica editrice Bartolo Longo, Valle di Pompei, 1890."

"It’s easier to be on TV. Politics is much harsher than the small screen."

"[Three adjectives to describe yourself?] Moody. Determined. Sensitive."

"(About Francesco Boccia) At the beginning of our relationship, he was a free spirit, very much aligned with the libertine ideal embodied by Franco Califano, his idol and dearest friend. I was insecure and saw danger everywhere; today, I don’t. Family comes first for both of us. However, at the start of our relationship, he was easily distracted—that’s for sure."

"Interviewer: What is your erotic fantasy? De Girolamo: Doing it in public, on a beach or in the street, without worrying about prying eyes."

"I’m very straight, but anything can happen—who knows? I get hit on by men but also by lots of women. Today I received a letter from a lesbian girl who wrote that I’m her ideal woman. And I also have lots of foot fetishists who’d do anything for me, even though I’m a size 10—not exactly Cinderella’s shoe size."

"[About the Telekom Serbia case] I confess: I am the puppet master behind this whole affair. I am turning myself in for complicity in slander with Paoletti, Marini, and Pintus. [I] have created difficulties for Forza Italia and Berlusconi. [It is therefore right] that I withdraw from political life. I have made a grave mistake, and this is an open confession; it is right that I make a public apology; I acknowledge that Repubblica is staffed by first-rate journalists. I am making a serious announcement: I will resign as a member of parliament in the coming days. Through the various schemes outlined by Repubblica and my ties to figures such as D’Andria, Fracassi, Di Bari, and even Francesco Pazienza—all linked in the public imagination to rogue intelligence agencies and international fraud and money laundering—I succeeded in making the Telekom Serbia Commission the target of a poisoned chalice. I take full responsibility for the individuals who, by implicating Prodi, Dini, and Fassino, have seriously slandered them; and I accuse myself of complicity in slander, though I hope Repubblica does the same, because while I accuse myself, I would like to know from D’Avanzo and Bonini who their puppet masters were at the time and whom they now serve. Repubblica is right, I cannot sue!"

"(About the deaths of Ilaria Alpi and Miran Hrovatin) They were on vacation in Somalia; they were not conducting any investigation: the Commission has established this (January 2004)."

"(About the case of Eluana Englaro) A genuine murder has taken place. [Even] Parliament itself has been taken for a ride. My complaint would have been for attempted murder; now it will be different—namely, premeditated murder. And it will be filed against the girl’s father Beppino Englaro, against the doctors who treated her, and also against the Public Prosecutor of Udine for abuse of office or for whatever crimes may be identified. As for the prosecutor in Udine, who has been completely inactive, I will request the intervention of the Public Prosecutor’s Office in Milan, which has jurisdiction over crimes committed by the judges in Udine. This barbaric murder, this attack on life, must be punished and brought to justice."

"I worked for years for Berlusconi; I know his strategies. When I was his legal advisor and he asked me to draft laws that would protect him from the magistrates, he certainly made no secret of their ad personam purpose. And I drafted them even better than Ghedini and Pecorella do now. The one on legitimate suspicion—I think it was 2002—he needed to move his trials from Milan to Rome. He asked us for it openly, and we, faithful executors of the prince’s will, set about writing it. And we did a pretty good job, I must say: everything seemed in order. Then one evening in late October, around 11 p.m., a call came from Ciampi. I told Berlusconi that with that amendment, it wouldn’t serve any purpose anymore. He thought about it for a moment and then replied: “Let’s do it this way for now, and we’ll see.” I was right: in fact, the law passed with those amendments and was of no use to him."

"There are many things I did during that period that I would never do again. I have no qualms about saying that I went through a moral crisis, which culminated when I saw how the Cavaliere's inner circle was taking shape."

"(Regarding the secret dossier on Ilaria Alpi) I have absolutely no recollection of having given that document to the then-Chief of Police, and I certainly did not grant any investigative authority to Gianni De Gennaro."

"Se vinciamo, stavolta non faremo prigionieri."

"Criminals judge judges. We want to be judged by whoever we choose. Previti wants to be judged by a judge who thinks like him. But if the judge thought like Previti, he wouldn’t be a judge—he’d be a criminal."

"Previti sued me for a billion because I compared him to a Rottweiler. It should be the Rottweiler Association suing for a billion because I compared them to Previti."

"Previti can’t be judged because he’s a defendant, but also a member of parliament. But if I saw him near my car, I’d call the police."

"I once saw it on TV—there was Previti, Ferrara, and Ignazio La Russa; oh, I thought it was an episode of Star Trek."

"Previti is something of a Lombrosian symbol of the Italian political system's ills. He is the person most responsible for the situation in Italy, second only to Berlusconi."

"I believe I have made my opinion of Mr. Previti clear in terms so explicit that they may seem—to more than a few—brutal: a man who, just by looking at his face, makes you want to slap handcuffs on him before you even know who he is or what he has done."

"It is no coincidence that the lawyer defending Zappadu is a member of the European Parliament from Antonio Di Pietro's Italia dei Valori party. He wears two hats—lawyer and parliamentarian—that should not be confused. I mean: if the victim is the Prime Minister and the defendant is being defended by a member of an opposition party... well... it’s as if I were to bring a civil action in any trial against, say, D’Alema, Fassino, or Prodi."

"Even if this girl’s allegations were true—and they are not—the Prime Minister would, according to the reconstruction, be the end user and therefore never criminally liable."

"The Lega aspires to a fragmented, quasi-feudal world of city-states, and yearns for a sort of autarky: with a “yes” to polenta and a “no” to pineapple, as if this were a problem of the future..."

"The law is the same for everyone, but its application is not necessarily so."

"Ciancimino’s statements regarding Milano Due are completely devoid of any factual basis or logic, and can be refuted with documentation at any time. All financial flows related to Milano 2—a real estate project that even today is considered one of the finest achievements in our country—are more than transparent and have repeatedly been subject to thorough audits and verifications. [...] All findings have demonstrated the entirely lawful origin of all the money used.[7]"

"Santoro is a great professional; I appreciate him; he’s someone who does his job very well. He may well be biased, but he does so clearly. He doesn’t deceive the viewer. Interviewer: Did you enjoy going there, Ghedini? Ghedini: It was an exhausting battle, but a good one. I preferred it to so many self-righteous shows."

"Santoro gets on my nerves because he’s fighting a friend of mine. But I appreciate his professionalism. He’s biased, but in an open way. Interviewer: Do you prefer Vespa or Santoro? Ghedini: I have more fun on Santoro’s show."

"I don’t like going there (to AnnoZero) to play that role, and I don’t like that ring where they call you on just because they want to tear you apart. I go—it's my duty—but I feel the breath of hatred, and in some way I feed it too, of course.[10]"

"[About a wiretap of Giuseppe Graviano] No one has shown us this conversation. If it existed, we would have to listen to it to verify Graviano’s actual words. In any case, he knew he was being recorded and might have misled them. I am not aware of any meeting between Berlusconi and Graviano or anyone directly or indirectly linked to him. Much less with a well-known cousin of him."

"[About Giuseppe Graviano’s statements] After 26 uninterrupted years of imprisonment, Mr. Graviano suddenly makes statements clearly aimed at obtaining procedural or prison benefits by inventing meetings, figures, and episodes that are implausible and untrue. One can, among other things, perfectly understand the deep animosity toward President Berlusconi for all the laws enacted by his governments specifically against the Mafia. Obviously, all appropriate legal actions will be taken before the judicial authorities."

"The situation is laughable: President Berlusconi, who works around the clock, is a man of great wealth, charm, and zest for life... He certainly doesn’t need anyone to bring him women."

"To think that Berlusconi needs to pay a girl 2,000 euros just to go out with him seems a bit much to me. I think he could have plenty of them, for free."

"Berlusconi has great respect for women and no inclination to pay a woman to have a relationship with him."

"This time we took action purely as a matter of principle. A newspaper—namely *L'Unità*—cannot write that a person is impotent or a pig without expecting the accused person to take offense and react."

"Berlusconi is ready to go to court to explain that not only is he not a big pig, but he isn’t impotent either."

"You see, not everything is the result of political cunning. There are also moves dictated by pride and a sense of honor. And why on earth [...] shouldn’t Berlusconi be able to explain to twenty million Italians—his loyal voters—that he is perfectly capable?"

"The part of the Supreme Court’s ruling regarding the statute of limitations is different. The Court of Appeals’ ruling stated, “Before 1980, there were ties to the Mafia; after that, there were not.” The Supreme Court’s ruling—which is the final instance, and which no one wants to examine—states that, regarding the period prior to 1980, there are two alternative truths: the possibility that he (Giulio Andreotti) either had ties to the Mafia or did not. There is a situation of doubt, but it makes no sense to go back and determine which of the two alternative truths applies, because the statute of limitations has expired. So it remains a matter of doubt. Quite different from the appellate ruling."

"Angelino is intelligent, has depth and culture, but these qualities must translate into the ability to say no even to Berlusconi."

"Filippo Carobbio’s defense strategy is clear: to downplay his crime as a mere transgression, thereby avoiding a dangerous criminal conspiracy charge. This is why Carobbio accuses Conte; this is why he tries to downplay his own role in the soccer betting scandal. For the Disciplinary Commission, Carobbio is a witness of absolute credibility; Carobbio is divine, one and triune—a mythologization that struck me but is by no means accidental, because the judges used the famous “ping-pong” cross-examination technique on him."

"Plea bargaining is becoming like honey for false turncoats. To get a reduced sentence. They rejected it for Conte, and for a man like him, it’s better that way. Better a century-long ban."

"The watchword is disparity. [..] We must aim to have much more than men if we truly want to make up for what we’ve lacked so far. Centuries of discrimination, abuse, unfavorable laws. I consider it compensation for everything we’ve been through."

"The first thing I tell my new clients is: “It happened to you; it's a misfortune. Just think of it as if you'd been diagnosed with cancer.” I wasn't just wondering if Andreotti would be acquitted. I was wondering if he'd have time to read all the documents, if he'd even make it alive to the Court of Cassation."

"Don’t ask yourself why this misfortune has befallen you specifically, or you’ll go mad. Get it into your head that it’s a total loss."

"You come out of a criminal trial with at least a nervous tic."

"In the courtroom, you often have to improvise. The better prepared you are, the better you are at improvising."

"I never held any major positions in the PSI, but I had the honor of being a friend of Craxi."

"I’ll miss politics, but it’s no tragedy. I’m going back to my studies, to medieval philosophy."

"I will miss certain moments. I, who had been in the PSI until the public prosecutor’s office dissolved it in ’92, remember well the months spent at the Ministry of Justice: together with Minister Biondi, we were the protagonists of the failed—though noble—attempt to bring the justice system back on track."

"Once the [PSI] party was dissolved, some became Muslims, some Jews, some Catholics. But we have always remained socialists."

"It’s true, laws were enacted to serve specific trials. We passed the Schifani ruling—later declared unconstitutional, and in fact it was unconstitutional in some respects—to allow Berlusconi to govern (October 9, 2004)"

"This ruling [on the unconstitutionality of the Pecorella Law] could reopen trials already before the Court of Cassation, and the decisive factor will once again be not the oral and public trial in the first instance, but the appeal based on written documents."

"I say that among the motives cited (for the murder of Don Peppino Diana) in the trial records, there are some of the most diverse. During the trial, some spoke of revenge out of jealousy, others reported that he was killed because they wanted to divert the investigations that were underway regarding another criminal group. And others also reported that he kept the clan’s weapons. No one has ever said why this murder took place, given that there were no precedents to reconstruct the facts. If one is familiar with the trial documents, one knows that various motives are cited by different sources. [...] There are various motives; there is also the one—which did not emerge at first—that he was engaged in anti-Camorra activities. To tell the truth, even this did not emerge very clearly as a motive during the trial. It is pointless for us to build fantasies around hypotheses. His anti-Camorra activism is among the hypotheses. But during the trial, it did not emerge in a striking way; there was never any mention of mass mobilization or people taking to the streets. It’s not as if there had been public demonstrations or documents. Someone also cited this reason. As you can see, there are many motives. Certainly, he was killed by the Camorra. Anyone killed by the Camorra is a victim of the Camorra. Now, if he is a martyr, we must understand that from the motive, which has not been clarified."

"A paid sexual encounter not with a 14-year-old but with a girl who was six months shy of being of age. Legally, that’s how it is [a minor]. But she was six months away, and it doesn’t seem to me—allow me the irony regarding my surname—that she was some poor lost lamb. As for me, though this is a personal opinion, I believe that today the age of majority is too high compared to the maturity young people have reached."

"In any case, I did not propose the decree [the so-called Biondi Decree]; it was Berlusconi."

"(About the debate between a hard line and negotiation during the Moro case) There is no need to divide ourselves into hawks and doves; there is no need to misrepresent the spirit of renunciation and submission as warm humanitarianism, or, as cold statism, the basic requirement of not compromising on inalienable rights and duties, such as the duty to deliver justice and ensure the equality of citizens before the law."

"The liberals are in the government, but Forza Italia is controlled by the Christian Democrats, the Socialists, the Communists, and former Fininvest employees."

"(About the description of Silvio Berlusconi as a liberal) In economic terms. Otherwise, he's a bit of a Christian Democrat and a bit of a Craxi supporter."

"(About Silvio Berlusconi) Now he has to deal with what he calls the “theater of politics,” which requires dialogue, while he prefers monologues."

"Dini is a high-ranking official at the Bank of Italy with the strengths and limitations of someone who lends money to those who already have it."

"Pomicino is one of those local figures who thrive in their own little world but don’t know where to go outside of it."

"Scalfaro remains right-wing and fundamentalist even though he joins the protests. Just like what happened to Montanelli or Federico Orlando. They’re characterized by moralistic rigor. Bigotry. The secular kind is worse than the religious kind."

"Daniele Capezzone. He’s a cleric, a young man of rare intelligence who strikes me the same way as those learned priests who become cardinals."

"Berlusconi should choose people capable of saying no to him. And besides, he works too much. He invites me to long dinners at his house where we talk only about politics. But he should go to a trattoria, to chat, to watch people."

"Bondi is an offshoot of Berlusconi. In fact, Bondi is Berlusconi. Bondi is the boss at the disposal of the periphery. He listens to everyone."

"As long as the presiding judge is a colleague of the prosecutor—whom she might even marry—then I wonder if they hold their chambers in bed."

"Berlusconi has a very strong ego. But the party has faded without him."

"Forza Italia lacks internal debate. Because of a vision I call “leadercratic.”"

"Fede is grateful to Berlusconi because he never abandoned him. Berlusconi is good. He never abandons anyone."

"I’ve figured out the mystery of why Scajola fell in love with Berlusconi. His dream was to become important in Liguria. He succeeded by placing his people everywhere."

"Fazio is the mellifluous leftist. His eyes look like two eggs in a frying pan."

"Gruber is a smug little saint."

"(About Valerio Zanone) The least liberal of them all. A liberal is humble. He is limited by his arrogance."

"(About Bruno Vespa) He is too accommodating. He doesn’t put his guests on the spot. He hosts well but with a loose rein. Everyone leaves satisfied and even reimbursed."

"He is a cheerful man, even a bit of a joker, prone to sudden outbursts of anger and just as quick to forget them. He served as a minister in both the First and Second Republics, as Vice President of the Chamber of Deputies, and as secretary of the PLI. When I was editor-in-chief of *Cuore*, he sued me, though neither of us remembers why. He is dogged by an undeserved reputation as a heavy drinker and a well-deserved one as a witticism-spinner."

"(About the Biondi decree) I had protested, saying that in matters of justice, one cannot legislate by decree. But Biondi, who partly shared my position, explained to me that Berlusconi, alarmed by the possibility of his brother Paolo’s arrest, had exerted enormous pressure to have such a measure passed. (2 February 1995)"

"We believe that, when technologies cause psychosocial harm linked to the loss of the unborn child's genetic parental identity, this is not progress but regression, a form of barbarism. This is the case with assisted reproduction, which creates an unacceptable disconnect between social parentage and biological parentage – a rift between genetic parentage, gestational parentage and educational responsibility– with inevitable and irreparable psychological harm to the unborn child. Nor should it be claimed, as has been said many times, that the concept of parenthood is evolving today towards new horizons, because parents' horizons are different from those of their child, especially when we consider that the couple today is increasingly unstable and therefore in need of well-considered and, so to speak, 'orthodox' choices. You only have to look at the statistics to see the alarming figures. Nor should we accept the provocative claim, which I often hear repeated here and in public debates, that Italy is full of 'children of assisted reproduction' because they are the result of a woman's relationship with the milkman on duty. We believe that, when science is called upon to make up for nature's shortcomings, we should not imitate nature's excesses and degenerations, but rather preserve as natural a character as possible for the parental role, thereby avoiding the chaos of socially unprecedented and hard-to-define figures."

"(About the Cirinnà Bill of Law) These problems are the result of a devious political strategy. In words, they said they wanted to create a new legal entity, a union between people of the same sex; in practice, they mimicked traditional marriage to the point of creating a hybrid."

"Despite the debate over the different roles that will be defined in the next stages of the institutional framework, all the political parties represent the community as a whole."

"Please forgive my emotion, but for me, the decision you have made to elect a woman to the Presidency of this Assembly for the first time represents a responsibility that I cannot hide behind any formal preamble."

"The age of globalization offers opportunities and knowledge, but at the same time carries with it the risk of new forms of marginalization—a risk that cannot be ignored or underestimated, starting with the real economy and starting with the workplace."