All Quotes

"When a man leaves you, shame on him… but when you take him back, shame on you!"

"Something is weighing so heavily on my heart right now."

"God is all-knowing. God is watching."

"I should not be punished and insulted for being strong-willed."

"When the going gets tough for the favored child, I am made to suffer for it. She can do no wrong."

"The favored child is always the victim; the survivors are the villains."

"Antonio Labriola, Storia, filosofia della storia, sociologia e materialismo storico, in Scritti varii: editi e inediti di filosofia e politica, collected and published by Benedetto Croce, Giuseppe Laterza & Figli, Bari, 1906."

"C'è un proverbio che ho sentito a The Voice: | «Tira più un Pelù di Litfiba | che un carro di buoi»."

"While technical instruments are generally the result of more or less fortuitous discoveries, which are perfected and refined over time through the accumulation of practical experience, machines have a distinctive feature: they are invented, i.e. designed in advance, and we know how they will be structured, how they will work and why they will work in a certain way before they are actually built. All this amounts to saying that there is nothing mysterious about a machine, that everything is, in principle, clear and distinct."

"There are things that can only be learned at school, but the proliferation of so-called “educations” has given rise to subjects that are a burden on schools. This is partly to ease the conscience of other institutions and demonstrate sensitivity towards an issue."

"School helps young people if it manages to teach them critical thinking."

"Today, the family seems to lack values to pass on, and society needs values and role models."

"And surely what joy, what delight can ever be found that far surpasses the announcement made to that blessed Virgin and Mother of joy? Rejoice, O mother of supernatural joy! Rejoice, O nurturer of sublime joy! Rejoice, capital seat of the joy of salvation! Rejoice, co-operator of immortal joy! Rejoice, O mystical dwelling place of ineffable joy! Rejoice, O most blessed source of inexhaustible joy! Rejoice, O treasure of eternal joy who bears God! Rejoice, O most luxuriant tree of life-giving joy!"

"The Holy Spirit descends upon you, who are the Immaculate, to make you purer and give you the virtue of fertility."

"(To the ever Virgin Mary, mother of Jesus) You have made the nature of men beautiful; you have surpassed the hosts of angels; you have overshadowed the dazzling splendour of the archangels; you have shown the seats of thrones to be inferior to you; you have lowered the height of dominions; you have surpassed the commands of the principalities; you have weakened the power of the powers; you have gone forth as a virtue more powerful than the virtues themselves; you, with earthly eyes, have surpassed the keenest sight of the cherubim; you, with divinely moved wings, have flown beyond the flights of the soul of the seraphim."

"Georges Gharib (editor), Testi mariani del primo millennio. Volume 2: Padri e altri autori bizantini, Città Nuova, Roma, 1989. ISBN 88-311-9216-7 (in Italian)."

"Interviewer: What is rock? Piero Pelù: Freedom, positive anger, a naive utopian search for truth and irony. Rock must see the glass as half empty: it must be thirsty. And make few compromises."

"[...] rock is explosion. Not implosion."

"We will never get rid of Berlusconism, just like we will never get rid of Fascism. Nothing is more anti-political than our politicians. The PDL, but also the PD. I voted for Di Pietro, tomorrow I don't know. My utopia is to have real experts, not like these who hit pensioners and mock young people (referring to the Monti government)."

"(About Matteo Renzi) A scrapper to be scrapped. He put a tombstone on culture in Florence. He arrived, young and sprightly, and killed everything. A little Berlusconi who takes trips to Arcore."

"There is a proverb that I heard on “'The Voice”': ‘A Pelù by Litfiba pulls more | than a cart of oxen.’"

"In Milan, there is only one man, who is actually a woman, Kuliscioff."

"We will erect a monument to Giordano Bruno in Campo de' Fiori, in atonement for the sins of our ancestors, whose moral sloth was the cause of our delayed political progress, so that it may serve as a symbol to the multitudes of freedom of conscience, who will have it alive and powerful in time, when they grow in culture, and as a salutary warning to all the capable and all the lukewarm, who speak of conciliation without blushing."

"Giuseppe Garibaldi was a man of the people, and of that part of the people which, through its habit of frankness, sobriety of life and honesty of customs, is the most incorruptible. In his popular instincts as a lover of justice, a hater of privilege, a defender of the oppressed, and a persecutor of all tyranny, he will remain forever, and as in effigy, the noblest, simplest, and most persuasive example of true democracy."

"The doctrine of historical materialism, given the two elements of economic articulation and class friction, becomes the key to understanding true revolutions; that is, those changes in the complex state of society from which innovations in law, new political directions and new moral dispositions have derived."

"Antonio Labriola, Da un secolo all'altro, in "Scritti filosofici e politici", Franco Barbieri (editor), Einaudi, Torino, 1973."

"Antonio Labriola, Del materialismo storico. Dilucidazione preliminare, in "Scritti filosofici e politici", Franco Barbieri (editor), Einaudi, Torino, 1973."

"Antonio Labriola, Discorrendo di socialismo e di filosofia, in "Scritti filosofici e politici", Franco Barbieri (editor), Einaudi, Torino, 1973."

"Antonio Labriola, In memoria del Manifesto dei comunisti, in "Scritti filosofici e politici", Franco Barbieri (editor), Einaudi, Torino, 1973."

"Antonio Labriola, Socrate, Laterza, 1909."

"Antonio Labriola, Storia, filosofia della storia, sociologia e materialismo storico, in "Scritti filosofici e politici", Franco Barbieri (editor), Einaudi, Torino, 1973."

"(About Matteo Salvini) He always makes people laugh, like a fart. I imagine Salvini in government in six years' time: he will have reintroduced the racial laws of Fascism. [About the failure to grant a visa for Nigeria] He's lucky, if someone translates what he says to the Nigerians, I don't know if he'll get back from Nigeria."

"Gaber didn't say “I'm a singer-songwriter”, he didn't take sides. He took what he heard on the street and gave it back to the people honestly, with his own personal touch. Which was a cool touch, from someone who knew how to tell the truth to those in power."

"I have always respected Mango, a virtuoso and respectable singer, always on stage performing his art, right up to the end."

"Il tempo è giustiziere Rino | ora i tuoi dischi suonano come se fossero appena usciti. | Rino, hai vinto tu."

"“'Time is the avenger Rino | now your records sound as if they had just been released. | Rino, you won.”'"

"In Italy, it seems that the Rome are always to blame for everything. And the most unforgivable thing is the rise of Matteo Salvini. Explain to me why if an Italian goes abroad, it's a brain drain, but if a young person comes to us, they're a black person stealing our jobs, even if they have two degrees."

"(Talking to Red Ronnie about choosing vegetarianism) At first, as I told you, I tried it out of curiosity, to see if what you had been telling me so emphatically for a month was true. I tried it and saw that it was true. Continuing with this choice is a personal matter, but in my opinion, you have to see things for yourself before you can choose, right? We are not given the opportunity to choose; we are brought up to eat meat, so I advise everyone to try it and then choose, because in reality you feel – I don't want to say better or worse – but different."

"(In memory of his cat) […] you saved my life. Perhaps it may seem strange to some to talk about a cat in this way […]. But then again, you always understood me. Perhaps not my words, but my soul — yes, that always. […] No matter what happened to me during the day, whether I came home a winner or a loser — you were there. You were always there. […] You were there even when I thought that the only way to forget, to numb the pain, was alcohol. You helped me quit. Without you, I wouldn't be here today. That's why, the day I found out you were ill, I was so scared. […] Almost everyone told me you wouldn't make it. But I knew you wouldn't give up. All it took was giving you back 1/10 of what you gave me over the years to see you come back to life. Some people told me that the treatment was “exaggerated”. That you're not a person, but “just a cat”. They're right, you're just a cat. In fact, no person has ever given me what I got from you. Because that's how cats are. And I know you would have taken care of me as I did with you. I know, because you already did. And now that you've lost the battle, I miss you every day."

"Mi serve sentirti Rino | presto al mattino | per non sentirmi solo e per sentire un po' di orgoglio per il posto dove sono nato, vivo e scrivo.'"

"For years, bullies made me believe that I was worthless and that my soul was insignificant until I defeated them with music. I want to convey this message to young people who are bullied because they are gay or for other reasons: persevere and you too will defeat them. And to the friends of those who are bullied: be good allies and help your friends. Your soul is at stake."

"When we first heard Giorgio Gaber's songs, it was electrifying. What we are trying to do in our career, he was already doing perfectly in the early 1970s. Playing rock, we could say. Not rock misunderstood as self-destruction, but rock as a language. A language that allows you to respond deeply to anyone who prevents the individual from being free: practically, culturally, intellectually."

"Rino still gives me energy and anger. He had a rock attitude and a hoarse voice, he was an outsider even in terms of composition. :*Quoted in Luigi Bolognini, “”Rap' n' roll J-Ax: Now I want to understand if I'm really a rebel“”, “'la Repubblica”', 12 June 2012."

"Rino mi piaci un casino | tanto quanto mi piacevi da bambino, | mamma dice che eri quello che preferivo | perché eri il solo colorato in un cantautorato grigio."

"You're like a beautiful song by a band you hate, you confuse me but I can't help listening to you."

"J-Ax, Dalla strada al palco (pp. 31-32); in Andrea Pedrinelli (editor), Gaber, Giorgio, il Signor G. Raccontato da intellettuali, amici, artisti, Kowalski, Milano, 2008. ISBN 978-88-7496-754-4 (in Italian)."

"Even from these and individually from the Tartars of Niuche called Chin, who are more eastern, China is defended by hand ammunition, that is, the famous wall, which is worth discussing here. The head or founder of the imperial Cin family, one of the most ancient, a prince renowned for his prowess in arms and his works of more than royal magnificence, glorious above all others in Chinese history and for various reasons remembered by scholars, whether it was a dream he had or a prediction made by soothsayers (on which writers disagree, and perhaps there was nothing more than a good omen of providence), foresaw that the Tartars, as soon as the opportunity arose, would make every effort to break through the borders and descend to flood and fill China with their nation. Therefore, after consulting with his great heart, he decided not only to close the borders to them in the present but also to build a shelter that would secure them for centuries to come. He determined to arm those northern borders with a wall that would be invincible against both the Tartars and the weather. He did not delay in setting to work."

"It is interspersed with very strong and thick towers, which rise above the wall in beautiful proportion and space and height; and there are perpetually garrisoned soldiers, as many as are needed to defend the many passages of the curtain wall that flank the tower they guard. There are also very strong castles defending the few gates that had to be opened in the wall."

"I have never wanted to fight anyone, neither in open battle nor in a duel. But if ever I did, it would certainly not be with Grammarians; terrible men, like those whose words are not words, but deeds. And may God protect me from ever provoking them; for they are quick to anger, and if they take up their open dictionaries, as if they were Michele Scotto's Scongiuratore, just by opening them, they bring forth, like spirits ready to obey their every command, so many, I do not say nouns and verbs, but nicknames and proverbs, that it would be less dangerous to find oneself in the midst of a swarm of angry hornets than among them."

"[...] the most beautiful part of a discourse is the beauty of the subject: and those who work with their brains know from experience that an ingenious subject wonderfully sharpens the intellect and it seems almost as if the noble subject itself provides thoughts worthy of itself, ambitious to be treated nobly."