military-leaders-from-italy

"The Christian Democrats in Palermo live with the worst expression of their mafia activism, as well as their political activism [...]. The State entrusts the tranquility of its existence not to the will to fight and eradicate the mafia and mafia politics, but to the exploitation of my name to silence the irritation of the parties [...] ready to throw me to the wind as soon as certain interests are or must be touched or understood."

"Yesterday, the Hon. Andreotti asked me to go [to see him] and, naturally, given his electoral presence in Sicily, he indirectly expressed his interest in the issue. I was very clear and assured him that I would not show any consideration for the part of the electorate that his electors draw on."

"The messages already sent to some media outlets by the most corrupt “political family” (Andreotti's, ed.) in the area have already had the desired effect."

"As long as a party card counts for more than the state, we will never be able to defeat the mafia."

"Anyone who thinks they can fight the Mafia in the Palermo area and not in the rest of Italy is just wasting their time."

"Certain things are not done out of courage, they are done simply to be able to look our children and our children's children in the eye with greater peace of mind."

"We are powerless, that's it; frankly, when faced with these characters, while in normal investigations, in cases of criminality, we can cope and have even achieved significant results, when it comes to the mafia as such, as it is framed in a particular context, it is difficult for us to obtain evidence..."

"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? That was the work of Gladio and the CIA. [...] 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 wanted to intervene to free him as early as the beginning of April. 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."

"If it is true that power exists, this power belongs solely to the State, its institutions, and its laws; we cannot delegate this power to abusers, bullies, or dishonest individuals."

"Freemasonry is the cultural matrix of the Risorgimento and the founding fathers of the nation"

"I believe that classes with separate characteristics (see w:it:classi differenziali) would help children with great potential to express themselves to the fullest, and even those with more difficulties would be helped in a special way. It is not discriminatory. For students with problems, I rely on specialists. I am not specialized in disabilities."

"Carla Bruni was my classmate from elementary school through middle school. Her father was an important industrialist in the tire industry, linked to the Pirelli group. She was a smart, lively child with a great passion for music."

"Quality is the story of differences."

"(In elementary and middle school) There were those who had spent many years in Africa, those in Morocco, those in South America; their homes were filled with ever-changing and stimulating scents. It was then that I began to think of differences in language and culture as new territories to explore."

"What I criticize is the exhibitionist flaunting of this taste, which often tends to override what is, in fact, the common sense of the majority. Gay Pride? If they want to hold a parade in Rome or Turin, let them do it. One might wonder why they want to show off. Gay Pride claims to be fighting for rights, but even that is debatable. Rights are not differentiated; rights are for everyone. There are no rights for gays, rights for heterosexuals, rights for blondes, for brunettes, for those with blue eyes: there are rights for people. It's exhibitionism."

"If I see a homosexual, I'm not like Dracula with a crucifix."

"(About volleyball player Paola Egonu) I have never had any doubts about her Italian citizenship, and I am personally and wholeheartedly proud that she represents our country with her sporting excellence, but this cannot visually conceal her origins, which I am convinced she herself is proud of."

"The first definition of statesman is a man of state, therefore Musssolini is a statesman. This is stated in the Treccani encyclopedia."

"[...] I don't see why it is necessary to have an anti-fascist license to express one's opinions. I also claim consideration for Mussolini, who is a statesman, as were Cavour, Stalin, and all men who have held positions of state: it is the first definition of statesman in the dictionary."

"(On abortion) [...] an unfortunate necessity that women are forced to resort to. I don't think it's a right."

"All in all, there is no great figure of modern times so wholly admirable."

"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 evoked from the people and even from the politicians a personal devotion almost without parallel in modern history; again and again he chose the right course by instinct; and he showed himself the greatest general that Italy has ever produced."

"As to his Goddess Reason, I understand by it simply an adoption of what are called on the continent the principles of the French Revolution. These we neither want nor warmly relish in England."

"I am a Christian and I speak to Christians—I am a good Christian and speak to good Christians. I love and venerate the religion of Christ because Christ came into the world to deliver humanity from slavery for which God has not created it. But the Pope, who wishes all men to be slaves—who demands of the powerful of the earth fetters and chains for Italians—the Pope king does not know Christ. He lies to his religion. Among the Indians, two geniuses are recognized and adored: that of good and that of evil. Well, the Genius of Evil for Italy is the Pope king. Let no one misunderstand my words—let no one confound Popery with Christianity—the Religion of Liberty with the avaricious and sanguinary Politics of Slavery."

"Obbedisco."

"Il giorno in cui i contadini saranno educati nel vero, i tiranni e gli schiavi saranno impossibili sulla terra."

"Roma o morte!"

"Qui si fa l'Italia o si muore."

"I offer neither pay, nor quarters, nor provisions; I offer hunger, thirst, forced marches, battles and death. Let him who loves his country in his heart, and not with his lips only, follow me."

"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."

"Nissuno stato pubblico può godersi la quieta, nè ribattere l’injurie, nè diffendere le leggi, la religione e la libertà senza arme."

"Qual meraviglia . . . richiesto tal uno delle cose necessarie alla guerra, egli rispondesse, tre esser quelle : Danaro, danaro, danaro!"

"Chi può viver senza mangiare, esca in campagna senza le vittovaglie necessarie."

"L’ozio è somite del vizio, e della virtute negozio."

"È la lancia la regina dell’ armi a cavallo."

"L’arte che imita la natura, opera per gradi, e non a salti."

"Trattar le cose con molti, risolverle con pochi, o da se solo."

"There is no city, country-side, or castle, nor any place in all Romagna, nor officer or minister of the duke's, who does not know of these abuses; and, amongst others, the famine of wheat occasioned by the traffic which he held against our express prohibition, sending out such quantities as would abundantly have sufficed for the people and the army."

"Aut Caesar, aut nihil."

"Your brother, Cesar de Borgia, Elect of Valencia"

"However much Rome may be in the habit of speaking and writing, for my own part, I shall give these libellers a lesson in good manners."

"To all our Lieutenants, Castellains, Captains, Condottieri, Officers, Soldiers and Subjects, to whom these presents may be known, we commit and command that to our Most Excellent and Most Beloved Private Architect and General Engineer Leonardo Vinci, bearer of the same, and who has our Commission to survey the holds and fortresses of our States, in order that according to their exigencies and his judgment we may equip them, they are to give free pass, exempt from all public toll to himself and his company, and friendly reception; and to allow him to see, measure and estimate all he may wish. And to this effect they shall order men on his requisition and lend him all the help, assistance and favours he may request, it being our wish that for all works to be done in our Dominions any engineer be compelled to consult him and to conform to his opinion ; and to this may none presume to act in opposition, if it be his pleasure not to incur our indignation."

"Most Illustrious and most Excellent Lady, our very dear Sister,- Confident of the circumstance that there can be no more efficacious and salutary medicine for the indisposition from which you are at present suffering than the announcement of good and happy news, we advise you that at this very moment we have received sure tidings of the capture of Camerino. We beg that you will do honour to this message by an immediate improvement, and inform us of it, because, tormented as we are to know you so ill, nothing, not even this felicitous event, can suffice to afford us pleasure. We beg you also kindly to convey the present to the Illustrious Lord Don Alfonso, your husband and our beloved Brother-in-law, to whom we are not writing to-day."

"A matter which would be easily accomplished, as the best men of that State have already offered themselves to me."

"[I] had not forgotten the way to reconquer it [Urbino]."

"The constellations this year seem unfavourable to rebels.""

"Diet of bankrupts... To-day, Messer Paolo is to visit me, and to-morrow there will be the cardinal; and thus they think to befool me, at their pleasure. But I, on my side, am only dallying with them. I listen to all they have to say and bide my own time."

"senza segno d'alterazione alcuna"

"Without any sign of alteration."