Brunello Cucinelli

"...every human being has an amount of genius in them."

"If you have 1,000 people, you have 1,000 geniuses. They’re just different kinds of genius and a different degree of intensity."

"Man needs dignity even more than he needs bread."

"We have now swapped information for knowledge, which is not the same thing. I do not want to know."

"Mankind is becoming more ethical, but it is not happening because man has decided to become better than he was 100 years ago. It’s because we know we live in a glass house where everybody can see."

"We need a new form of capitalism, a contemporary form of capitalism. I would like to add “humanistic” to that equation."

"Since the very beginning, I have had this dream of living and working for the dignity of mankind."

"We must start from the joy of life, from respect, from humanity, because the most important thing in life is having respect for other people. Especially for those who might think very differently from you."

"Dignity generates responsibility, responsibility generates creativity."

"But with a phone call I can understand your mood, your emotions. With an email I can’t. When speaking I can understand if you have a problem in an instant. I understand your fear. But I can begin to cultivate a hope with you."

"I believe that there are three things in life that you must absolutely do yourself because nobody can do it in your place: keeping fit, following a diet, and accumulating culture."

"I used to always get up at 5 A.M., but now I force myself to stay in bed until 6."

"I have 5,000 books in my home, 1,000 of which I feel are close to my heart. They have always shown me the way. Books are my great passion; I could not live without them."

"If you are a dickhead you will still be a dickhead after tertiary education."

"It is never challenging when you only do one thing in life. It is difficult to do everything, but if you specialise in one thing, you can focus with your head bent over one single thing the whole day and you have less likelihood of getting things wrong."

"I nearly always wear almost the very same things. But I alter the combinations slightly."

"I myself can wear joggers, a good pair of sneakers, then maybe a sweatshirt, and on top of it all, a blazer. That's what makes a difference in luxury terms."

"...there is no accessible luxury. There is no aspirational luxury. It’s either luxury or not luxury."

"While things rest, the world regenerates."

"I started with nothing and built something, and one day it will finish, and something new will come out of it."

"I've always been quite fair in complexion. If I wear green, it does not suit me. It's one of these things in life that I cannot explain. It just is."

"I'm 65; I couldn't just wear a normal suit, a nice shirt and tie. Because I don't want to look that old - I want to look at least 10 years younger."

"So you do need to make a plan for the next three or 30 years, but also the next 300 or 3,000 years."

"In the winter on a Sunday afternoon, I can spend six hours in front of the fireplace, just looking at the flames and thinking. In the evening, I’m drunk with beautiful thoughts. My wife says to me, ‘What are you looking at?’ I say, ‘The fire.’ We have to take a step backward."

"Do you think that during the first five hours of the day you are the same as you are in the last five hours? No way. You’re tired, and if you’re tired, you stop listening, and the decisions you make are risky."

"Our soul needs to be fed on a daily basis too, as much as the body and the mind."