People From Lombardy

"Communism teaches and seeks two objectives: Unrelenting class warfare and absolute extermination of private ownership. Not secretly or by hidden methods does it do this, but publicly, openly, and by employing every and all means, even the most violent. To achieve these objectives there is nothing which it does not dare, nothing for which it has respect or reverence; and when it has come to power, it is incredible and portentlike in its cruelty and inhumanity. The horrible slaughter and destruction through which it has laid waste vast regions of eastern Europe and Asia are the evidence; how much an enemy and how openly hostile it is to Holy Church and to God Himself is, alas, too well proved by facts and fully known to all. Although We, therefore, deem it superfluous to warn upright and faithful children of the Church regarding the impious and iniquitous character of Communism, yet We cannot without deep sorrow contemplate the heedlessness of those who apparently make light of these impending dangers, and with sluggish inertia allow the widespread propagation of doctrine which seeks by violence and slaughter to destroy society altogether. All the more gravely to be condemned is the folly of those who neglect to remove or change the conditions that inflame the minds of peoples, and pave the way for the overthrow and destruction of society."

"I hope that this Congress next year will be a moment for the Church and society to reflect on the fact that everything really depends, at least for us Catholics and believers, on the Eucharist. Jesus' words have become our Gospel and Jesus' actions have become our Sacraments. It is fundamental for us to see this in the celebration of the Congress."

"An administrator is neither a master nor a slave who cannot decide anything, but one who is given a responsibility by the Master."

"One of the greatest problems in present-day Eucharistic celebration is the temptation to abandon the traditional explanations without proposing appropriate substitutions. It was easy to demolish the past, but explanations have not been suggested that might last longer. The solution of course is not to continue with the guidelines of the past, and beyond renewing exterior forms, we must add new vital sap. The form can change or remain the same, what is important is to have a new justification, with greater vigor and support."

"This is not the first time we have a conflict in the Holy Land. But this conflict has had an impact like no other. There is a clear ‘before’ and ‘after’, October 7, 2023, even if we struggle to define and understand what this ‘after’ is. The emotional, economic, psychological, human impact has been enormous on both populations, Israeli and Palestinian. For the Israeli population, it was a huge shock. Israel was founded as the home where Jews are safe, and suddenly that no longer seemed true. The hostage issue is the most crucial point for Israel. We are seeing protests continuing all over the country. Israelis are divided on many things, but they all agree on one: the hostage issue. It is a huge issue. Even for the Palestinians, what happened after October 7, in Gaza but also in the West Bank, was an incredible shock. I would say this is true for the Arab population in general. We are dealing with fear and feelings of hatred and resentment that, in these proportions, had never been seen before. We also have to consider the economic impact that the war is having on social life: part of the Palestinian population has lost their jobs, but even in Israel the situation is not easy ­– just think that there are no more pilgrimages. People who were working have been called to arms. Life is difficult. There is a deep sense of distrust that permeates society at all levels. It will be very difficult to rebuild trust after all this, partly because we cannot see what come next, when it will all end."

"Cardinal Pizzaballa: The truce must hold, and everything must be done to ensure that it does. There are those who are working against it, we know that, but we must try not to give them any space. The agreement is the same as it was months ago. I believe it has been reached now because perhaps the human and international political conditions have matured. The important thing now, however, is to turn the page immediately and start dealing with the extremely serious humanitarian situation in Gaza."

"There were two conclave, the one of the cardinals and the one of the media. I participated in the first one...I knew before I left for Rome that I would return. There was a very quick and very clear consensus among the cardinals on the choice to be made. I assured him [Pope Leo XIV] of obedience, closeness in prayer, loyalty and the will to work together for the Church in the world and in the Holy Land."

"It is objectively an intolerable situation. We have always had many problems of all kinds, and the economic and financial situation has always been very fragile, but there has never been hunger. This is the first time we have had to deal with hunger. This is intolerable."

"After this crisis, one of the most serious of the last 70 years, neither Israelis nor Palestinians will be willing to seek temporary solutions. These events will force everyone to find stable solutions. [Two peoples, two states?] I don't know. Technically it seems difficult to me, even if it would be the only possible way. It is clear that whatever you choose to do will have to guarantee stability and freedom for both peoples."

"We are made of flesh and bones, we need to experience, to touch, to see, to feel. Christianity is not spirituality, it is mysticism. Mysticism means experiencing, touching. The Shroud is a bit like the Sacraments, a kind of Sacrament. The Sacraments are a sign of an experience, of an encounter with Christ. And so it is with the Shroud. First of all, the Shroud immediately takes you back, with its image, with its reality, to two thousand years ago; and then it introduces you to that experience of resurrection and encounter with the Risen One: the Risen One who is present. Only you need to feel this presence, to touch it, and the Shroud introduces you to this experience."

"A bishop cannot lead his flock without the collaboration of his priests, the religious and the faithful. He would not be a good shepherd. Today you are all with me, though not as numerous as we wished. But I know from different parts of the diocese and the world, many faithful and pilgrims of our and other diocese, are close to us in prayer, and it is in this spirit that we find ourselves as Church – the Mother Church of Jerusalem."

"With respect to clothing, in addition to the material aspect, there is a moral aspect, since clothes have the purpose of defending, concealing and protecting the mystery of sexuality and life. And there is a metaphorical aspect, which I myself witness by wearing the cardinal's red, since the garment refers to the investiture, that is, to the social function of who wears it and to the symbolic representation that follows. [...] Even the simplest vestments can testify to an excess of luxury, to the futility and uselessness of luxury. But just as the sacredness of the liturgical function appears in the ecclesiastical vestments, so in luxury haute couture a symbolic function appears that transcends the mere function of covering oneself."

"It is evident that freemasonry has acquired some Christian even liturgical models. We must not forget, in fact, that in the seventeenth century, many English lodges recruited some members and masters among the Anglican clergy, so much so that one of the first and fundamental masonic “constitution” was compiled by the Presbyterian pastor James Anderson, who died in 1739. It stated, among other, that an adept “will not be a stupid atheist nor an unreligious libertine”, also if the proposed credo, in the end, was the most undefined, “the one of a religion all men agree with”."

"Prayer is also an art, an exercise of beauty, of song, of inner liberation. It is ascesis and ascent, it is a rigorous effort, but also a gentle and free flight of the soul toward God."

"The soul that reduces prayer to the minimum remains asphyxiated; if it excludes all invocation, it is slowly strangled."

"Faith, like love, does not take up only a few hours of existence, but is its soul, its constant breathing."

"Stefano was a humble guy. He would always step back when the rest of them were having their picture taken. He never forced himself into that world."

"I am what they call a throttle man. You must not be scared of going too fast."

"In fact, I knew Princess Caroline by eye for two years [before March 1984.] We had mutual friends and I met her at various times during evening parties. Nothing more. At the end of the month of June, we both understood that we wanted to see each other every day, [and] we were invited by mutual friends for a cruise in Corsica, and at the end of this cruise we spent ten days together in Sardinia alone and we returned to Monte Carlo where we never left each other."

"He had confessed that he was a little superstitious, but it was to calm down with the number 3, and "the multiple numbers of 3, 6, 9, 12." He died on October 3, after six years of marriage, the year of his thirty years! He had three children, and the ring he had offered to Caroline had three sapphires, one yellow, a green and a blue!"

"Manzoni's first 'Lines' made in April 1959 marked the beginning of his experiments with highly cerebral works which led away from painting and which entitle him to be regarded as a precursor of Conceptual art.. .At least 50 'Lines' were made between April and December 1959, varying in length from 0.78 meters to 33.63 meters. Then his longest 'Line' measuring 7,200 meters was made on a newspaper printing press at Herning in Denmark on 4 July 1960 and was enclosed in a large cylindrical container made of lead-iron. It was buried in the ground so that it might eventually be discovered one day by chance, but in fact has since been dug up. Finally he made two 'Lines' 1,140 and 1,000 meters on 24 July 1961 which have been put into polished steel containers, with engraved inscriptions. Though several of these lines have been exhibited unrolled, the general intention was that the containers should remain unopened."

"Manzoni understood the creative act as part of the cycle of consumption: as a constant reprocessing, packaging, marketing, consuming, reprocessing, packaging, ad infinitum."

"In May 1961, while he was living in Milan, Piero Manzoni produced ninety cans of Artist's Shit. Each was numbered on the lid 001 to 090. Tate's work is number 004. A label on each can, printed in Italian, English, French and German, identified the contents as '"Artist's Shit", contents 30gr net freshly preserved, produced and tinned in May 1961.' In December 1961 Manzoni wrote in a letter to the artist Ben Vautier: 'I should like all artists to sell their fingerprints, or else stage competitions to see who can draw the longest line or sell their shit in tins. The fingerprint is the only sign of the personality that can be accepted: if collectors want something intimate, really personal to the artist, there's the artist's own shit, that is really his.' (Letter reprinted in 'Battino and Palazzoli', p. 144)"

"You [=Yves Klein ] are the 'monochrome bleu' and I am the 'monochrome blanc'; we should start to cooperate together, we two. [Manzoni's remark, during their first meeting]"

"I would like to draw a white line covering the complete Greenwich meridian."

"You [Dutch Zero-artist, Henk Peeters] take the North of Europe, I'll take the South. Switzerland will be our neutral zone where we shall have our common exhibition. (Manzoni's reaction when Henk Peeters accused him of plagiary]"

"There comes a point where individual mythology and universal mythology are identical. In this context it is clear that there can be no concern with symbolism and description, memories, misty impressions, of childhood, pictoricism, sentimentalism: all this must be absolutely excluded. So must every hedonistic repetition of arguments that have already been exhausted, since the man who continues to trifle with myths that have already been discovered is an aesthete, and worse."

"So it is obvious that at first glance there would seem to be a paradox: the more we immerse ourselves in ourselves, the more open we become, since the closer we get to the germ of our totality the closer we are to the germ of totality of all men. We can therefore say that subjective invention is the only means of discovering objective reality, the only means that gives us the possibility of communication between men"

"Why not to set free these forms? Why not trying to uncover the infinite meaning of absolute space, the meaning of pure and absolute light? [Manzoni is referring to the colourless, but still matter-made art paintings, made by Zero artists, around 1950-60]"

"Manzoni's critical and metaphorical reification of the artist's body, its processes and products, pointed the way towards an understanding of the persona of the artist and the product of the artist's body as a consumable object. The 'Merda d'artista' (the artist's shit, dried naturally and canned 'with no added preservatives'), was the perfect metaphor for the bodied and disembodied nature of artistic labour: the work of art as fully incorporated raw material, and its violent expulsion as commodity."

"Where the artist is concerned it is a question of the conscious immersion in himself, through which, once he has got beyond the individual and contingent level, he can probe deep down to reach the living germs of total humanity. Everything that is humanly communicable is derived from this, and it is through the discovery of the psychic substrata that all men have in common that the relationship of author-work-spectator is made possible. In this way the work of art has the totemic value of living myth, without symbolic or descriptive dispersion: it is a primary and direct expression."

"The work of art has its origin in an unconscious impulse that springs from collective substrata of universal values common to all men, from which all men draw their gestures, and from which the artist derives the 'archaic' of organic existence. Every man of his own accord extracts the human element from this base, without realizing it, and in an elementary and immediate way."

"The foundations of the universal value of art are given to us now by psychology. This is the common base that enables us to sink its roots to the origins before man and to discover the primary myths of humanity. The artist must confront these myths and reduce them, by means of amorphous and confused materials, to clear images. Since these are atavistic forces that have their origins in the subconscious, the work of art takes on a magical significance."

"I should like all artists to sell their fingerprints, or else stage competitions to see who can draw the longest line or sell their shit in tins. The fingerprint is the only sign of the personality that can be accepted: if collectors want something intimate, really personal to the artist, there's the artist's own shit, that is really his."

"When I blow up a balloon, I am breathing my soul into an object that becomes eternal. [Manzoni's quote of 1960, referring to his art-work 'Artist's Breath']"

"I sell an idea, an idea in a can."

"The key point today is to establish the universal validity of individual mythology.. .The artistic moment is therefore that in which the discovery of pre-conscious universal myths comes about, and in the reduction of these into the form of images. It is clear that if the artist is to be able to bring to light zones of myth that are authentic and virginal he must have both an extreme degree of self-awareness and the gifts of iron precision and logic."

"To arrive at such a discovery, fruit of a log and precious education, involves a whole field of precise technique. The artist must immerse himself in his own anxiety, dredging up everything that is alien, imposed or personal in the derogatory sense, in order to arrive at the authentic zone of values."

"..a single uninterrupted and continuous surface from which anything superfluous and all interpretative possibilities are excluded. [referring to his 'Achromes', Manzoni started to make in 1957]"

"If there is an Italian school, it is represented by the puzzling and redoubtable figure of Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli, the most important Italian pianist after Busoni (if Busoni be considered Italian). Purely as a playing machine, Michelangeli is a legend to his colleagues, who put him in the Horowitz class as a super-virtuoso. Some of his playing is startling in its sheer pianistic polish and perfection. His fingers can no more hit a wrong note or smudge a passage than a bullet can be veered off course once it has been fired. In addition he is a complete master of tonal application, as evidenced in his performance of Gaspard de la nuit. By any standards this is one of the triumphs of modern pianism. The puzzling part about Michelangeli is that in many pieces of the romantic repertoire he seems unsure of himself emotionally, and his otherwise direct playing is then laden with expressive devices that disturb the musical flow."

"He's a real perfectionist. But I think that this fanaticism and and the extreme instrumental standards he set for himself prevent his imagination from taking flight and stop him expressing any real love for the work he's performing so impeccably. It's 'inspiration' that's missing. Is this a notion that's been banished from today's dictionaries? It would be a great shame if this were so. But – one doesn't judge a master."

"["How was he when the concerts were over?"] Sometimes he resembled children in having fun with few things. He was essential in this too. But his greatest passion, outside of music, were racing cars. He drove a Ferrari. One day he took me from Moncalieri, where he taught courses, to Turin in his car. He darted through the streets. I was terrified. And he didn't say anything; he was like a statue, dead serious. He looked like Buster Keaton. When we stopped in front of the station, he turned his bird-like head and opened his mouth: "Don't tell me I have scared you""

"I think Michelangeli in some repertory is absolutely incredible, especially Debussy."

"Interesting pianist, but I think he is just a little bit meshuga."

"Impressionism is at the root of all modern art, because it was the first movement that managed to free itself from preconceived ideas, and because it changed not only the way life was depicted but the way life was seen."

"Is he best player of his generation? Not quite, but he is the most important."

"You're forced to tell the media a lot of crap; provided, of course, that they manage to ask you the right question...You read a dull, lifeless script written by press officers with no talent or creative spark."

"Pirlo is a silent leader. He speaks with his feet."

"After a while, I began to suspect that it wasn't Mark David Chapman who killed John Lennon. It had been one of the Milan directors."

"Passing judgement on others is always a lot of fun. Looking inwards is that little bit more difficult."