All Quotes

"It is easy to specify the individual objects of admiration in these grand scenes; but it is not possible to give an adequate idea of the higher feelings of wonder, astonishment, and devotion, which fill and elevate the mind."

"Through the means just specified, aided perhaps by others as yet undiscovered, man has been raised to his present state. But since he attained to the rank of manhood, he has diverged into distinct races, or as they may be more appropriately called sub-species. Some of these, for instance the Negro and European, are so distinct that, if specimens had been brought to a naturalist without any further information, they would undoubtedly have been considered by him as good and true species. Nevertheless all the races agree in so many unimportant details of structure and in so many mental peculiarities, that these can be accounted for only through inheritance from a common progenitor; and a progenitor thus characterised would probably have deserved to rank as man."

"The moral faculties are generally esteemed, and with justice, as of higher value than the intellectual powers. But we should always bear in mind that the activity of the mind in vividly recalling past impressions is one of the fundamental though secondary bases of conscience. This fact affords the strongest argument for educating and stimulating in all possible ways the intellectual faculties of every human being."

"When the principles of breeding and of inheritance are better understood, we shall not hear ignorant members of our legislature rejecting with scorn a plan for ascertaining by an easy method whether or not consanguineous marriages are injurious to man."

"There should be open competition for all men; and the most able should not be prevented by laws or customs from succeeding best and rearing the largest number of offspring. Important as the struggle for existence has been and even still is, yet as far as the highest part of man's nature is concerned there are other agencies more important. For the moral qualities are advanced, either directly or indirectly, much more through the effects of habit, the reasoning powers, instruction, religion, &c., than through natural selection; though to this latter agency the social instincts, which afforded the basis for the development of the moral sense, may be safely attributed."

"Man may be excused for feeling some pride at having risen, though not through his own exertions, to the very summit of the organic scale; and the fact of his having thus risen, instead of having been aboriginally placed there, may give him hopes for a still higher destiny in the distant future. But we are not here concerned with hopes or fears, only with the truth as far as our reason allows us to discover it. I have given the evidence to the best of my ability; and we must acknowledge, as it seems to me, that man with all his noble qualities, with sympathy which feels for the most debased, with benevolence which extends not only to other men but to the humblest living creature, with his god-like intellect which has penetrated into the movements and constitution of the solar system — with all these exalted powers — Man still bears in his bodily frame the indelible stamp of his lowly origin."

"With savages, the weak in body or mind are soon eliminated. We civilized men, on the other hand, do our utmost to check the process of elimination. We build asylums for the imbecile, the maimed and the sick. Thus the weak members of civilized societies propagate their kind. No one who has attended to the breeding of domestic animals will doubt that this must be highly injurious to the race of man. Hardly anyone is so ignorant as to allow his worst animals to breed."

"If you make a story and it just goes into the void, you wonder what kind of impact it might leave, so it's always better when you hear that people are actually hurt—at least the people who should be hurt by your stories."

"I know what kind of stories I want to do. I know the message that I want to craft. Having said that, it's a collaboration. It's never just about the point of view of one person. I don't have the monopoly of ideas. But I think it's a privilege to have that kind of influence on the story from conception to airing. And I don't take that lightly. The fact that I have the time, I have the team, and they're willing to let me craft the story means a lot to me."

"[first lines] Wait a minute, pussycat! Ever since I was a pup, I've wanted a little place of my own. And I still want it. But, if one more thing happens to my little dream house...there's going to be murder! [throws Tom]"

"Harry E. Lang as Tom (uncredited)"

"Paul Frees as the Radio Announcer (uncredited)"

"The main difficulty in using either lazo or bolas, is to ride so well, as to be able at full speed, and while suddenly turning about, to whirl them so steadily round the head, as to take aim: on foot any person would soon learn the art. One day, as I was amusing myself by galloping and whirling the balls round my head, by accident the free one struck a bush; and its revolving motion being thus destroyed, it immediately fell to the ground, and like magic caught one hind leg of my horse; the other ball was then jerked out of my hand, and the horse fairly secured. Luckily he was an old practised animal, and knew what it meant; otherwise he would probably have kicked till he had thrown himself down. The Gauchos roared with laughter; they cried they had seen every sort of animal caught, but had never before seen a man caught by himself."

"Some leagues above Rozario the western shore was bounded by perpendicular cliffs, which extended in a long line to below San Nicholas. Hence the coast more resembled that of the sea, than that of a fresh-water river. It is a great drawback to the scenery of the Parana, that, from the soft nature of its banks, the water is very muddy. The Uruguay, flowing through a granitic country, is much clearer; and I am told, that where the two channels unite at the head of the Plata, the waters may for a long distance be distinguished by their black and red colours. In the evening, the wind not being quite fair, as usual we immediately moored, and the next day, as it blew rather freshly, though with a favouring current, the master was much too indolent to think of starting. At Bajada, he was described to me as "hombre muy aflicto,"—a man always miserable to get on; but certainly he bore all delays with admirable resignation. He was an old Spaniard, and had been many years in this country. He professed a great liking to the English, but stoutly maintained that the battle of Trafalgar was merely won by the Spanish captains having been all bought over; and that the only really gallant action on either side was performed by the Spanish admiral. It struck me as rather characteristic, that this man should prefer his countrymen being thought the worst of traitors, rather than unskilful or cowardly."

"One of the best gifts of nature seems here wilfully thrown away, in so grand a channel of communication being left unoccupied. A river in which ships might navigate from a temperate country, as surprisingly abundant in certain productions as destitute of others, to another possessing a tropical climate, and a soil which, according to the best of judges, M. Bonpland, is perhaps unequalled in fertility, in any part of the world. How different would have been the aspect of this river, if English colonists had by good fortune first sailed up the Plata! What noble towns would now have occupied its shores! Till the death of Francia, the Dictator of Paraguay, these two countries must remain distinct, as if placed on opposite sides of the globe. And when the old, bloody-minded tyrant is gone to his long account, Paraguay will be torn by revolutions, violent in proportion to the previous unnatural calm. That country will have to learn, like every other South American state, that a republic cannot succeed, till it contains a certain body of men imbued with the principles of justice and honour."

"I was amused by the dexterity with which a Gaucho forced a restive horse to swim a river. He stripped off his clothes, and jumping on its back, rode into the water till it was out of its depth; then slipping off over the crupper, he caught hold of the tail, and as often as the horse turned round, the man frightened it back by splashing water in its face. As soon as the horse touched the bottom on the other side, the man pulled himself on, and was firmly seated, bridle in hand, before the horse gained the bank. A naked man on a naked horse is a fine spectacle; I had no idea how well the two animals suited each other."

"They expressed, as was usual, unbounded astonishment at the globe being round, and could scarcely credit that a hole would, if deep enough, come out on the other side. They had, however, heard of a country where there were six months light and six of darkness, and where the inhabitants were very tall and thin! They were curious about the price and condition of horses and cattle in England. Upon finding out we did not catch our animals with the lazo, they cried out, "Ah, then, you use nothing but the bolas:" the idea of an enclosed country was quite new to them. The captain at last said, he had one question to ask me, which he should be very much obliged if I would answer with all truth. I trembled to think how deeply scientific it would be: it was, "Whether the ladies of Buenos Ayres were not the handsomest in the world." I replied, like a renegade, "Charmingly so." He added, "I have one other question: Do ladies in any other part of the world wear such large combs?" I solemnly assured him that they did not. They were absolutely delighted. The captain exclaimed, "Look there! a man who has seen half the world says it is the case; we always thought so, but now we know it." My excellent judgment in combs and beauty procured me a most hospitable reception; the captain forced me to take his bed, and he would sleep on his recado."

"The natural history of this archipelago is very remarkable: it seems to be a little world within itself; the greater number of its inhabitants, both vegetable and animal, being found nowhere else."

"The natural history of these islands is eminently curious, and well deserves attention. Most of the organic productions are aboriginal creations, found nowhere else; there is even a difference between the inhabitants of the different islands; yet all show a marked relationship with those of America, though separated from that continent by an open space of ocean, between 500 and 600 miles in width. The archipelago is a little world within itself, or rather a satellite attached to America, whence it has derived a few stray colonists, and has received the general character of its indigenous productions. Considering the small size of these islands, we feel the more astonished at the number of their aboriginal beings, and at their confined range. Seeing every height crowned with its crater, and the boundaries of most of the lava-streams still distinct, we are led to believe that within a period, geologically recent, the unbroken ocean was here spread out. Hence, both in space and time, we seem to be brought somewhat near to that great fact — that mystery of mysteries — the first appearance of new beings on this earth."

"In the face of death, it is clear that political differences fade away. For this reason, we express our deepest condolences on the death of Oscar Luigi Scalfaro, who was always – in all the political and institutional roles he held – a consistent and fierce political opponent of ours."

"Of terrestrial mammals, there is only one which must be considered as indigenous, namely, a mouse (Mus Galapagoensis), and this is confined, as far as I could ascertain, to Chatham island, the most easterly island of the group. It belongs, as I am informed by Mr. Waterhouse, to a division of the family of mice characteristic of America. At James island, there is a rat sufficiently distinct from the common kind to have been named and described by Mr. Waterhouse; but as it belongs to the old-world division of the family, and as this island has been frequented by ships for the last hundred and fifty years, I can hardly doubt that this rat is merely a variety, produced by the new and peculiar climate, food, and soil, to which it has been subjected. Although no one has a right to speculate without distinct facts, yet even with respect to the Chatham island mouse, it should be borne in mind, that it may possibly be an American species imported here; for I have seen, in a most unfrequented part of the Pampas, a native mouse living in the roof of a newly-built hovel, and therefore its transportation in a vessel is not improbable: analogous facts have been observed by Dr. Richardson in North America."

"I have not as yet noticed by far the most remarkable feature in the natural history of this archipelago; it is, that the different islands to a considerable extent are inhabited by a different set of beings. My attention was first called to this fact by the Vice-Governor, Mr. Lawson, declaring that the tortoises differed from the different islands, and that he could with certainty tell from which island any one was brought. I did not for some time pay sufficient attention to this statement, and I had already partially mingled together the collections from two of the islands. I never dreamed that islands, about fifty or sixty miles apart, and most of them in sight of each other, formed of precisely the same rocks, placed under a quite similar climate, rising to a nearly equal height, would have been differently tenanted; but we shall soon see that this is the case. It is the fate of most voyagers, no sooner to discover what is most interesting in any locality, than they are hurried from it; but I ought, perhaps, to be thankful that I obtained sufficient materials to establish this most remarkable fact in the distribution of organic beings."

"The English have not been very particular in giving names to the productions of Australia; trees of one genus (Casuarina) are called oaks for no one reason that I can discover, without it is that there is no one point of resemblance. Some quadrupeds are called tigers and hyenas, simply because they are carnivorous, and so on in many other cases."

"In the dusk of the evening I took a stroll along a chain of ponds, which in this dry country represented the course of a river, and had the good fortune to see several of the famous Platypus, or Ornithorhyncus paradoxus. They were diving and playing about the surface of the water, but showed so little of their bodies that they might easily have been mistaken for water-rats. Mr. Browne shot one: certainly it is a most extraordinary animal; the stuffed specimens do not at all give a good idea of the recent appearance of its head and beak; the latter becoming hard and contracted."

"I had been lying on a sunny bank, and was reflecting on the strange character of the animals of this country as compared with the rest of the world. An unbeliever in every thing beyond his own reason might exclaim, "Two distinct Creators must have been at work; their object, however, has been the same, and certainly the end in each case is complete." While thus thinking, I observed the hollow conical pitfall of the lion-ant: first a fly fell down the treacherous slope and immediately disappeared; then came a large but unwary ant; its struggles to escape being very violent, those curious little jets of sand, described by Kirby as being flirted by the insects tail, were promptly directed against the expected victim. But the ant enjoyed a better fate than the fly, and escaped the fatal jaws which lay concealed at the base of the conical hollow. There can be no doubt but that this predacious larva belongs to the same genus with the European kind, though to a different species. Now what would the sceptic say to this? Would any two workmen ever have hit upon so beautiful, so simple, and yet so artificial a contrivance? It cannot be thought so: one Hand has surely worked throughout the universe."

"When I said that the scenery of Europe was probably superior to any thing which we have beheld, I excepted, as a class by itself, that of the intertropical regions. The two classes cannot be compared together; but I have already often enlarged on the grandeur of these climates. As the force of impressions generally depends on preconceived ideas, I may add, that all mine were taken from the vivid descriptions in the Personal Narrative of Humboldt, which far exceed in merit any thing I have read on the subject. Yet with these high-wrought ideas, my feelings were far from partaking of any tinge of disappointment on first landing on the shores of Brazil."

"Among the scenes which are deeply impressed on my mind, none exceed in sublimity the primeval forests undefaced by the hand of man; whether those of Brazil, where the powers of Life are predominant, or those of Tierra del Fuego, where Death and Decay prevail. Both are temples filled with the varied productions of the God of Nature:—no one can stand in these solitudes unmoved, and not feel that there is more in man than the mere breath of his body."

"The map of the world ceases to be a blank; it becomes a picture full of the most varied and animated figures. Each part assumes its true dimensions: continents are not looked at in the light of islands, or those islands considered as mere specks, which are, in truth, larger than many kingdoms of Europe. Africa, or North and South America, are well-sounding names, and easily pronounced; but it is not till having sailed for some weeks along small portions of their coasts that one is thoroughly convinced how large a portion of our immense world these names imply."

"In the coming hours we will see the true scale of the Wikileaks operation and will therefore be able to give a considered assessment. In any case, it is now clear that the very concept of terrorism has come to have a much broader meaning than the traditional one. It is evident that there is a form of media terrorism which, in certain respects, can be far more effective than traditional terrorism. In Italy, this modern and sophisticated form of terrorism has been underway for some time and has become increasingly aggressive in recent months."

"The proposal to lower the age of majority is one of the issues on the table but it is not the most urgent one."

"In conclusion, it appears to me that nothing can be more improving to a young naturalist, than a journey in distant countries. It both sharpens, and partly likewise allays that want and craving, which, as Sir J. Herschel remarks, a man experiences although every corporeal sense is fully satisfied. The excitement from the novelty of objects, and the chance of success, stimulate him to increased activity. Moreover as a number of isolated facts soon become uninteresting, the habit of comparison leads to generalization. On the other hand, as the traveller stays but a short space of time in each place, his descriptions must generally consist of mere sketches, instead of detailed observation. Hence arises, as I have found to my cost, a constant tendency to fill up the wide gaps of knowledge, by inaccurate and superficial hypotheses."

"I thank God, I shall never again visit a slave-country. To this day, if I hear a distant scream, it recalls with painful vividness my feelings, when passing a house near Pernambuco, I heard the most pitiable moans, and could not but suspect that some poor slave was being tortured, yet knew that I was as powerless as a child even to remonstrate. I suspected that these moans were from a tortured slave, for I was told that this was the case in another instance. Near Rio de Janeiro I lived opposite to an old lady, who kept screws to crush the fingers of her female slaves. I have staid in a house where a young household mulatto, daily and hourly, was reviled, beaten, and persecuted enough to break the spirit of the lowest animal. I have seen a little boy, six or seven years old, struck thrice with a horse-whip (before I could interfere) on his naked head, for having handed me a glass of water not quite clean; I saw his father tremble at a mere glance from his master's eye. ... It is argued that self-interest will prevent excessive cruelty; as if self-interest protected our domestic animals, which are far less likely than degraded slaves, to stir up the rage of their savage masters. It is an argument long since protested against with noble feeling, and strikingly exemplified, by the ever illustrious Humboldt. It is often attempted to palliate slavery by comparing the state of slaves with our poorer countrymen: if the misery of our poor be caused not by the laws of nature, but by our institutions, great is our sin; but how this bears on slavery, I cannot see; as well might the use of the thumb-screw be defended in one land, by showing that men in another land suffered from some dreadful disease. Those who look tenderly at the slave-owner, and with a cold heart at the slave, never seem to put themselves into the position of the latter;—what a cheerless prospect, with not even a hope of change! picture to yourself the chance, ever hanging over you, of your wife and your little children—those objects which nature urges even the slave to call his own—being torn from you and sold like beasts to the first bidder! And these deeds are done and palliated by men, who profess to love their neighbours as themselves, who believe in God, and pray that his Will be done on earth! It makes one's blood boil, yet heart tremble, to think that we Englishmen and our American descendants, with their boastful cry of liberty, have been and are so guilty: but it is a consolation to reflect, that we at least have made a greater sacrifice, than ever made by any nation, to expiate our sin."

"Ho pensato di iscrivermi a quella loggia come ci si iscrive al Rotary, ai Lions. Così quando è scoppiato lo scandalo P2 non mi restava che il suicidio..."

"Ho capito, ad esempio, che Bettino Craxi e Claudio Martelli c'erano dentro fino al collo con Gelli e Ortolani. Ad esempio, la storia dei 30 milioni di dollari, del conto Protezione, mica è uno scherzo. C'è da credere davvero che in quegli anni, con tutti quei soldi, si siano comprati il PSI."

"Se io, Signorile e De Michelis fossimo rimasti insieme, saremmo riusciti a contrastare Craxi. Insieme funzionavamo, purtroppo andò in maniera diversa e per me alla rottura contribuì anche un problema finanziario."

"We do not believe that turning a self-deprecating joke into a gruesome and vulgar challenge to the public is the height of proper reporting. Unfortunately, that is what Enzo Biagi is doing today in the Corriere della Sera. All this is topped off with a grossly sexist remark directed at the provincial coordinator of Forza Italia in Bolzano. If there were a festival of bad taste and misinformation today, this time Biagi would have won first prize."

"You will get nowhere by setting up small firing squads that, in the name of the single party, beat up Berlusconi."

"The hand of the man who attacked Berlusconi was fuelled by a ruthless hate campaign, [waged] by the Repubblica-L’Espresso publishing group, by that morning paper of the public prosecutors known as “'Il Fatto”', by a programme hosted by Santoro and by a media terrorist named Travaglio, as well as by certain public prosecutors, who are handling some of the most sensitive trials concerning the relationship between the Mafia and politics and who appear on television to demonise Berlusconi. And by a party such as Idv, with its leader Di Pietro, who in recent days has been inciting violence."

"The monsters are the secret services, an increasingly substantial and dynamic structure that intervenes continuously, massively and oppressively in political and social reality [...] In 1968–69, the protest movement shook the established order, which, in turn, sought to recover in various ways, one of which was the systematic, provocative and violent terrorist activity of specific sectors of the separate bodies of the State [...] The monsters fabricate opposing extremisms: the regime’s darling, Rai TV, is responsible for amplifying the distortion, presenting it as objective; Sid and Rai TV, two very different entities and yet so close when it comes to supporting, in critical decisions, the DC regime. [...] True to form, the Red Brigades reappear on the eve of every election. (1975, introduction to Marco Sassano’s book “Sid and the American Party. The role of the CIA, the secret services and the separate corps in the strategy of subversion", published by Marsilio. Quoted from “”Micromega“”, 16 December 2009)"

"Craxi preferred to say no rather than yes. You leave Berlusconi’s office with a smile; even if his generosity sometimes leads him to say a few too many yeses."

"Craxi’s mortal sin was not the bribes; it was his choice of autonomy. That, indeed, was not forgiven him."

"Bettino is blamed for never having broken with the Christian Democrats; but, when he showed himself ready to do so, Berlinguer was on the verge of reaching an agreement with De Mita and Spadolini for a "different government", with technocrats, just to marginalise the Socialists."

"(About Bettino Craxi) A giant, a part of the country’s history. To criminalise him is a vulgar act. How many crimes did Togliatti commit or cover up in the 1930s and 1940s? Yet he is considered part of our history. Craxi’s true ‘crime’ was to restore ideological autonomy to the Socialists, dismantling the myth of Lenin and indeed that of Gramsci as well."

"Being notoriously a troglodyte, Francesco Speroni is incapable of speaking about the First, Second or even Third Republic. Fortunately, the Lega in the Chamber, the Senate and local authorities has a political class of a different calibre."

"It is regrettable that some Fini supporters have aped Travaglio, plundering his books and writings to the full."

"(About the incident involving the Italian fishing boat fired upon by a Libyan patrol boat) We are dealing with a counterpart who is addafi, a man with unique characteristics but one with whom we must reckon. He could dump thousands and thousands of immigrants on our shores. The whole fishing boat incident must be condemned; it is deplorable, but a break with Gaddafi and with Libya would have disastrous consequences for our country."

"The former AN members are in a state of perpetual congress; every now and then the mechanism kicks in."

"(Referring to the onti Government) This Government had three objectives, or at least three slogans: austerity, growth, fairness. As far as austerity is concerned, there has been an extraordinary and exceptional degree of it. We acknowledge that the Government has gone beyond even what was required by the economic and financial logic of Italy and the international context. Zero growth, zero fairness: this is our assessment of this government, and we also note that we have been faced with a unilateral policy in terms of a formal 45 per cent and a substantial 55 per cent increase in the tax burden, accompanied by such deep cuts to the spending of local authorities, regions and municipalities that the repercussions will be felt, be felt by ordinary citizens, and further exacerbated by that utterly sadistic measure that was the IMU."

"I recall when Paolo Guzzanti was chairman of the Mitrokhin parliamentary commission, which was tasked with investigating the illegal activities of the Soviet secret services in Italy up until 1984. Guzzanti wanted to ascertain whether Romano Prodi had been a Russian agent. This was absolutely untrue, even though he had very close ties with Moscow through the Prometeia association. In his hunt for this evidence, Guzzanti found himself caught up in a clash between Russian spies who were in the habit of using polonium to eliminate troublesome figures. So much so that his car was kept well away from Berlusconi’s residence. And the men in my security detail kept their distance from Guzzanti’s security detail, for fear of being contaminated by any radiation. This was, and is, Putin."

"I have said before that there was a bond of psychological homosexuality between Berlusconi and Putin: they admired one another and theirs was a relationship of absolute equality. Putin regarded this Italian entrepreneur, who controlled the television networks and had managed to make a name for himself in politics, as a genius. In turn, Berlusconi regarded him as a pragmatist, capable of running a country like Russia and with whom one could do many things together: from business to women."