All Quotes

"The problem of insults, so-called “hate speech”, is complex. The phenomenon has been analysed by some American feminists who, by deconstructing the mechanisms of male domination, have pointed the finger at the vicious circle of “hate speech” that assigns women a well-defined role from which they can no longer escape. All those who dare to loudly claim equal civil rights are not taken seriously: their claims are immediately discredited and, instead of arguments, the insidious weapon of insults is used against them to silence them. [...] When you shout at a woman that she is a “slut”, at a homosexual that he is a “faggot” or at a black person that he is a “dirty nigger”, you do so because the other person cannot respond. What matters is not the argument you use. There is no argument, no idea, no rationality in the insult. The aim is always the same: to hurt the other person so that they remain silent."

"The real struggle for Italian women today is to work on the “contents” and no longer just on the “containers” of equality, striving to change male attitudes and mentalities. The emancipation of women has not yet led to the hoped-for balance because the vast majority of men do not want to give up their privileges."

"The possibility of breaking the “glass ceiling” is linked to the need for women to learn to “network”. We must gradually build a system of female relationships that becomes a resource for all. A system that allows us to break out of the “invisible cage” in which many of us still find ourselves, because the tendency to give in to social pressures is still strong. [...] As long as women accept as a given that they have to work a “double shift” and do not fight, by “networking”, to change the mentality of men, no law will ever be able to rid them of the “glass ceiling” that continues to discriminate against them. The freedom won in the 1960s and 1970s is no longer enough. To make it effective and achieve equality, we need to rediscover the value of solidarity."

"The days I have lived are part of my history. The joys I have known have shaped me. Without the past, which is inevitably written on my body, I would not be who I am. Erasing every mark that time leaves on our bodies means, in essence, erasing our memory as well. It means oblivion, not wanting to know, not wanting to show. It means underestimating the importance of experience, deluding ourselves that immediacy is the only value worth recognising. We cannot want to “be” and “have been” at the same time, be seventy years old and behave as if we were forty."

"Being on the side of women does not mean dreaming of a world in which the power relations can finally be reversed so that men suffer what women have suffered for centuries. Being on the side of women means fighting to build an egalitarian society in which being a man or a woman is “irrelevant”, has no significance. Not because being a man or a woman is the same thing, but because both men and women are human beings who share the best and worst of the human condition. The goal of women is not to dominate men, after having been dominated for centuries, but to fight to gradually move away from this logic of domination, without forgetting that, despite everything, human beings are (and will always remain) deeply ambivalent."

"There are two values I am not willing to give up: freedom and equality. No one can impose their conception of life, their ideas or their beliefs on others. Even if freedom is never absolute [...], everyone must be able to choose how to live their life, without coercion or intimidation. Only when we are free can we take responsibility for our choices, our actions and their consequences: freedom is the cornerstone of personal autonomy; it is what allows each person to become the protagonist of their own life. At the same time, however, in order for freedom not to remain an abstract value, it is necessary to organise the conditions conducive to its exercise, first and foremost among which is equality. If I do not have the same rights as others and if I do not have the material means to assert them, I cannot automatically be free to choose what I want to do or to achieve what I desire."

"Your strong and loving spirit has drawn its light and its flames from Him. Therefore, I am truly, greatly, incredibly fortunate: because in order to love you and think of you, I must love the Truth and think of the Truth. (p. 4)"

"To freedom as “non-interference”, the famous “freedom from” of the liberal philosophical tradition, we must add freedom as “non-domination”, “freedom to”, that effective freedom that allows everyone to participate in “public affairs” without suffering the consequences of intolerable discrimination on the basis of gender, sexual orientation, skin colour or religious belief."

"By concealing what it covers, the veil, by definition, manages to both “show” and “avert the gaze”. From this point of view, it is generally used to protect oneself from the gaze of others, to escape the logic of shame. To show oneself and be seen, one must want to do so: to allow the gaze of others to rest on us without hurting us. The veil can then be a shelter for the woman who wears it, provided, however, that she never closes herself off completely. If it serves to protect the mystery of the body, it must also allow something to be glimpsed: the eyes, an ankle, a strand of hair. Otherwise, there is a risk of it becoming a “shroud”."

"The problem of man is the problem of worship, and everything else is done to bring you light and substance."

"Autumn is the season of man, because it is like us: a death that is not without fruit."

"Wisdom is not absolute autocracy and independence of the soul, but obedience and subordination of the soul to higher things, through which it acquires the ability to dominate and subordinate lower things. Only in this way does it become subordinate and mistress. “'Servire Deo libertas est”'. Humility and freedom are equally necessary."

"The “”vanity“” of life and pleasure can be clearly seen when we consider that pleasure is everything in the perspective of pleasure and never in the perception of it."

"In the “'world”' we must not only desire “'few”' things, because few things are desirable, but we must also desire those few things “'little”', both because they are not very desirable and because, if greatly desired, they become a source of pain."

"Existence appears as an “ex-sistere” from nothingness."

"The ideal of reason that had emerged in the modern world with Grotius and Descartes found one of its first typical expressions in Spinoza."

"Secularism should be considered as mutual autonomy not only between political and religious thought, but between all human activities, which must be subordinate to one another in a relationship of hierarchical dependence, nor can they be subject to ends or interests that are foreign to them, but must autonomously carry out their own purposes and internal rules. This corresponds, in the relationships between activities, to freedom in the relationships between individuals."

"Reason itself is fallible, and this fallibility must find its place in logic."

"The final situation of the effort towards being realises its essential unity with the initial situation."

"Truth is precisely the abstract and symbolic expression of a given moment in life; and just as this is never equal to itself but transforms into a motion that has no rest, so too does its correlative aspect change according to its rhythm."

"Marcus Aurelius does not direct his reflections to others but only to himself. The “”Memoirs“” are not a lesson for an ideal or real disciple (as Seneca's “'Letters to Lucilius”' were), but a continuous effort to remind “'himself”' of the philosophical cornerstones that alone can guarantee him serenity and inner peace. They therefore have a dramatic tone that is lacking in other ancient and modern moral works. Marcus Aurelius' interlocutor is only himself: Marcus Aurelius, emperor and man. Only within himself does he believe he can find the law of truth and goodness. Seeking solitude is useless, he says; one must withdraw into oneself because only in the depths of one's soul can tranquillity and truth be found. This attitude, which was adopted by the Christian world, is the fundamental leitmotif of Marcus Aurelius's “Memoirs”. In himself, man finds the reason with which divine providence has ordered the universe, and the criterion of truth and moral conduct. But by withdrawing into himself, man does not find himself in isolation: reason binds him to all men with whom he shares it."

"In the modern world, allegory has lost its value and it has been denied that it can express the nature or function of poetry. It has been seen as the juxtaposition of two different spiritual facts, the concept on the one hand and the image on the other, between which it would establish a conventional and arbitrary correlation (Croce); and above all, it has been accused of neglecting or rendering impossible the autonomy of the poetic image, which would have no life of its own because it would be subordinate to the requirements of the conceptual scheme it is supposed to embody. Much of modern aesthetics therefore declares allegory to be cold, poor and boring; and rather insists, in the interpretation of poetry and art in general, on the value of the symbol, which can be alive and evocative because the symbolic image is autonomous and has an interest in itself, that is, an interest that does not derive from its conventional reference to a concept or doctrine. However, if we take into account the power or vitality of certain works of art with a clear allegorical structure (e.g., the Divine Comedy and many medieval and Renaissance paintings), we must say that allegory does not necessarily make the autonomy and lightness of the aesthetic image impossible and that, in certain cases, even the precise correspondence between the image and the concept may not be mortifying for the former and may not take away from it the vitality of art or poetry. T. S. Eliot made a defence of allegory in this sense, precisely with regard to Dante."

"To discover the authentic objectivity of the world, man must not think of the world as a part of himself, but must feel himself as a part of the world."

"Only those who isolate themselves from themselves and from their neighbours are truly alone."

"Naples, moreover, remained essentially impervious to Fascism. The same was true of the notables who, even in 1922, on the eve of the March on Rome, had applauded Mussolini at the San Carlo Theatre until their hands were sore. The people were equally indifferent to Mussolini's slogans, due to their atavistic scepticism (a flaw that can sometimes become a virtue). (from “'Don Benedetto e io”', p. 12.)"

"When I wandered around Naples sixty years ago, breathing in the salty air amid the cries of the fishmongers, I certainly did not encounter the Absolute Spirit, which advances through history via its dialectic of thesis, antithesis and synthesis. I was assailed, painfully and sweetly, only by the manifold reality. I saw the faces of the Neapolitans, their mocking expressions, with an ancient and popular wisdom, at one with the courtly and familiar misery of the “most noble Naples”, between the baroque solemnity of the monuments and the squalor of the slums. I told myself that Hegel's “Ratio” was far removed from all this, from the beauty of the women, from the dazzling glances of the dark eyes behind the long lashes of the girls down in Via Toledo and Chiaia, in the boisterous cheerfulness that greeted you everywhere, even in poverty, even in the tattered multicoloured clothes drying in the alleys in the night breeze, under the moon. Was it perhaps the Absolute that was the subject of the real world, of history, or rather the multiplicity of individuals, with their authentic needs? (from “'L'assoluto e l'odor di pesce”', p. 20)"

"I was also “educated” about humanity by the ancient Neapolitan cunning, known as the “art of getting by”, or rather, of surviving what was perhaps invincible poverty. There were, for example, the sellers of fake gold, who approached tourists who had just disembarked or were about to enter Zi' Teresa's shop with brazen impudence to sell them some “knock-offs”, there were the old men of San Gennaro dei Poveri who, for a fee, would go from Piazza Carlo III to people's homes to mourn the dead, and could go as far as Vietri and Sorrento if necessary (for triple or at least double the pay: 150 lire); on every corner there were water sellers offering jugs of ice-cold water, along with improvised vendors of pasta, steaming vermicelli freshly served with a sprinkling of tomatoes and pepper; and there were prostitutes, young and old, selling themselves with the same look, sometimes brazen, sometimes imploring. In books and in small everyday events, I found constant, mutual confirmation [...] (from “'Nella Napoli nobilissima”', p. 31)"

"Never did the sky of Turin, with the still snow-capped crown of the Alps, appear to me with solar clarity as when, on 28 April 1945, the nightmare of war ended. The city was invaded by thousands of vehicles which, previously hidden because the Germans intended to requisition them, now proceeded honking their horns through the centre in a joyful popular celebration. The city, a third of which had been destroyed by bombing, thought only of rebuilding from that moment on, in the fervent climate of hope that had taken hold of the entire nation. (from “'Le scimmie di Sartre”', p. 58)"

"[...] anti-humanism is a characteristic feature of certain contemporary philosophies that at first glance are the antithesis of what Severino defends. They are, in fact, philosophies that deny Being and affirm appearance in its disorder, in its accidentality, in the arbitrary games of which man himself is the random result. By insisting on the “'difference”' between appearance and Being, these philosophies attribute to appearance, which for them is the only “reality” (if it can be called that) that can be spoken of, the characteristics opposite to those of Parmenidean Being. Severino, on the other hand, insists on these characteristics and denies the others. But he too reduces man to the domain of appearance and sees him resolved in it. “In Western language,” he says, “‘man’, ‘I’, ‘you’, ‘group’, “people”, ‘social class’ are words that express the forms taken by the persuasion that isolates the Earth, that is, the forms of alienation from truth”. In other words, they are “forms of error”. And so man and his world seem to be dismissed. But the “error” mentioned above can only be committed by Destiny, and so we can see in man “the appearance of Destiny”, that is, the dimension in which only “the occurrence of the mortal” is possible, with all that it implies. (from “Emanuele Severino”, pp. 104-105)"

"According to Severino, this alienation is at the root of all Western civilisation, which has accepted nihilism in post-Parmenidean metaphysics. We think and experience things as if they were nothing. Technology is nothing more than the salient manifestation of this attitude, which consists in transforming, producing and using things as if they had no reality of their own, as if they were nothing. Therefore, according to Severino, the triumph of technology is the triumph of nihilism. But those who, like him, oppose this triumph and plan a different world do not really escape nihilism because they continue to believe in becoming, in history, in time, that is, in the dominion of nothingness. “Their demands and their plans for a more humane world are the relics that the desert leaves behind as it grows. Philosophy, Christianity, Marxism, art are the relics of the growing desert.” (from “Emanuele Severino”, p. 107)"

"A lesson in humility springs from Severino's philosophy, however one may judge its Parmenidean assumptions: humility which, if it makes man more a spectator than an actor, is nevertheless indispensable to him as knowledge of his own measure. And the second lesson that can be drawn from this philosophy is respect for the world and for the things of the world which, if they are authentic realities, cannot be reduced to nothing by human endeavour. Finally (and this is certainly not the least important thing), the philosophy that Severino defends places the recognition of truth, whatever it may be, even if painful and unpleasant for man, as the supreme value. Humility, respect and fidelity to the truth are not values that are commonly recognised and defended in the contemporary era. I do not know whether it is essential to go back to Parmenides in order to rediscover them. It is certain, however, that in this era the fascination with nothingness, which is expressed, among other things, in violence and destruction, plays a dominant role: and that those who fight it, by highlighting its hidden sources, render a service not only to truth but to mankind itself. (from “'Emanuele Severino”', pp. 107-108)"

"The grace of the Lord, now returned to me after so much horrendous scepticism, through your gentle intercession, O Giulia, and your love, brings fresh and pure sap back to the old and sturdy centuries-old trunk. With you, it is a cluster of white roses that surrounds the old black oak tree for centuries."

"One cannot ignore that at the heart of the attitude still referred to today as “weak thought” and which continues to have its in Gianni Vattimo, there is a persistent trace of that longing for the infinite that was characteristic of romanticism. It replaces the infinity of Being, Truth and Perfection, which Romanticism dreamed of, with the infinity of transience, error and evil as the nature of the world, thus absolutising appearance in its worst forms and making human experience the destiny of nothingness. This new romantic dream, which is the inverse of the nineteenth-century one, may perhaps appeal as a literary expression of the crisis, the prevailing evils, the dangers facing humanity today, but it does not indicate any way out. Is Vattimo aware of this? I believe so. And I believe he is looking for one. (from “'Gianni Vattimo”', p. 113)"

"Questioning ourselves about a “politics” of intellectuals is important today, not least because we live in a time when so-called “cultural products” are increasingly involved in consumerism. They are often manipulated with a view to immediate and fleeting success, which they sometimes fail to achieve or which lasts only a morning. They often set out to shock, irritate and scandalise (which is also very difficult) in order to impose themselves with the label of absolute novelty, which is pure illusion. They often take on the function and value of “slogans” intended to increase the spread of foolish ideas and fictitious fanaticism. And their authors do not hesitate to take to the stage, to perform in costume, to put on the show they consider most conducive to their success. [...] Part of the bitter sadness that pervades the world of intellectuals today is due precisely to the awareness of their lost or diminished decision-making autonomy, of the looming danger of being able to survive only as instruments of forces that appreciate their work only as an occasional means of success, to be thrown away when it is no longer useful. (from “Il rischio del consumismo”, pp. 142-143)"

"A personality cannot express itself through suicide or the murder of others. Suicide and murder are the latent ends of a sex that rebels against its own measure. Sadism and masochism are the extreme limits of this tendency, which has many degrees in between. It is in the name of feminism that people today usually protest against the reduction of their sexual partner to a thing, an instrumental object, no more valid than a rubber doll. But in reality, anyone who turns their partner into a thing degrades themselves into a thing. (from “'Sesso e morale”', p. 166)"

"Entertainment, in the form in which it is enjoyed today, is a vain escape from the problems of life towards the immediate acceptance of the most striking aspects of life itself. It does not seek serenity but oblivion, not peace but agitation, not enjoyment but orgy. And so the underlying problems remain hidden and the possibilities for their solution recede. It is not the marginal forms, labelled “escapism”, that constitute the most serious form of escapism, but the dominant forms, preferred by the multitude, accepted without question, encouraged by success. And in the face of these, the question arises: what will “entertain” us from entertainment? (from “Evasioni dal quotidiano” [Escapes from everyday life], pp. 170-171)"

"When the expanse of more recently formed land on which Nantucket stood was submerged, Nantucket was insulated by the advance of the sea around it, and the other islands in the same chain—, , , and s—were similarly left standing in the ocean. Nantucket was, therefore, a —a halting-place of the glacial movement,—that is,it was formed by the advancing lower rim of the glacier which, melting, deposited its accumulation of —sand, clay, and s—caught up in its southward march, and frozen within its substance, in great heaps where they exist to-day as islands in the ocean."

"Nantucket is one of the last remaining authentic places in America. It has streets and Quaker meetinghouses and no traffic lights and no s. It also has fifty miles of pristine public beach. It's one of those places that people fall in love with because there is no place else like it."

"Since the island was settled, Nantucketers have been grappling with coastal hazards which, in many ways, are an accepted part of island life. Formed after the retreat of the , most of the island is composed of glacial outwash materials, including sand and , which are especially prone to erosion ... Over time, Nantucketers have adapted to coastal hazards by moving lighthouses, homes, roads, utilities, and other structures away from the coastline in both managed (i.e., planned) and emergency situations. However, with climate change, coastal storms are increasing in frequency and intensity and erosion of the island’s bluffs, dunes, and beaches is becoming more rapid with sea level rise, bringing impacts to Nantucketers’ front doors and threatening their homes, infrastructure, and natural resources."

"Social and political upheavals of the 1960s spurred many reactions in the arts, from optimistic modernism to nostalgic historicism, that resulted in a widespread revival of . On Nantucket, the 1960s craft revival coincided with a renaissance of the island itself, as it looked towards the past to shape its future. The wharf transformed and was promoted, the island a time capsule of its nineteenth-century glory days as a port. In 1961, the Nantucket Historical Trust renovated the Jared Coffin House, a historic whaling merchant’s mansion turned hotel, decorating it with custom reproduction interior textiles. A weaving workshop was established, and the Nantucket Looms was born. While historicism is Nantucket’s trademark, a study of the Nantucket Looms in the 1960s reveals that modernism is equally apparent in Nantucket’s craft history."

"... in 1762, seventy-eight s cleared from American ports, of which more than half were from Nantucket. The year of 1766 saw 118 vessels, measuring 75 tons each on the average, clear from Nantucket alone. They brought home 11,969 barrels of valued at $129,983. In 1770 the Nantucket fleet numbered 125 ships of the average size of 93 tons. During that year they took 14,331 barrels of oil worth $358,200. The ship owners of other ports, seeing Nantucket's prosperity, had tried to share in it. Their success was fairly good, but Nantucket owned at this time as many whale-ships as all the other ports of America combined."

"In all human undertakings the period of growth is followed by one of decay unless a new spirit pours fresh life into the old forms."

"Every time we look into each other's eyes and intertwine our hands, we must feel respectful and confident in the presence of Infinite Love. (p. 3)"

"The Buddha was a proponent of simple, direct teaching aimed at liberation and free of theoretical frills: his intent was purely pragmatic. His distrust of various speculative positions, which could be reduced to mere opinions, is well known. (p. 26)"

"If one wanted to summarise the essence of Buddhism in one sentence, it could only be this: everything that is transient is painful. In fact, after all, suffering (“”dukkha“”) is nothing more than transience. (p. 27)"

"The Doctrine (“”Dhamma“”) allows one to attain a state in which suffering can no longer take root, because one embraces eternity. “”nibbàna“”, liberation, is nothing more than this imperishable state, removed from the becoming of things. (p. 27)"

"After all, “'nibbàna”' is not a concept: this is why attempts to illustrate it through language and logic lend themselves to various misunderstandings. Some Buddhists understand it literally: as a state of “extinction”, comparable to the extinguishing of a flame. Yet the Buddha often criticised proponents of the nihilistic interpretation: “nibbàna” should not be conceived as pure nothingness. [...] It does not designate the abyss of a void, nor a worldly dimension comparable to those that exist: it can simply be said that pain is definitively eliminated there. (pp. 72-73)"

"[The Buddha] advised bhikkhus to be an island (“'dìpa”') or a refuge for themselves. After his passing, their only support or bulwark would be the Dhamma. His legitimate successors would ultimately be only those who had managed to take refuge in the Dhamma, that is, in themselves. (p. 75)"

"The Master wanted to provoke our critical spirit so that, by studying his doctrine, we could probe ourselves. [...] In Great Vehicle Buddhism, the need for such an orientation was recognised. For example, an important passage from a collection of Ch'an, a school of Chinese Buddhism, points to the need to free oneself from attachment to the Dhamma as well. Until one forgets even the Dharma, one still cultivates a sense of self, that is, the illusion of constituting a separate individuality in relation to other creatures. One becomes attached to a vision, an opinion, and is incapable of uniting, in perfect compassion, with all beings. (p. 88)"

"Patañjali, or whoever wrote on his behalf, seems to follow a “Kantian” line of thought: it is necessary to understand that knowledge is attributable to a subject; but this activity is not creative, and must take into account an objectively existing world. (pp. 10-11)"