All Quotes

"[As all regions] below are replenished with living creatures (not only the earth with beasts, & sea with {fishes} & the air with Fowls & Insects, but also standing waters, vineger, the bodies & blood of Animals & other juices with innumerable living creatures too small to be seen without the help of magnifying Glasses) so may the heavens above be replenished with beings whose nature we do not understand. He that shall well consider the strange & wonderful nature of life & the frame of Animals will think nothing beyond the possibility of Nature, nothing too hard for the omnipotent power of God. And as the Planets remain in their orbs, so may any other bodies subsist at any distance from the earth, & much more may beings who have a sufficient power of self motion, move whether they will place themselves where they will, & continue in any regions of the heavens whatever, there to enjoy the society of one another & by their {own sences} or Angels to rule the earth & convers with the remotest regions. Thus may the whole heavens or any part thereof whatever be the habitation of the Blessed & at the same time the earth be subject to their dominion. And to have thus the liberty & dominion of the whole heavens & the choise of the happiest places for abode seems a greater happiness then to be confined to any one place whatever. But the truth & manner of these things we shall not understand before the resurrection. I only speak of the possibility."

"No, I don’t want to think about what might happen to Giovanni; he has to carry on with his work – that’s his life, he couldn’t do without it – and I have to be there for him."

"Happiness is going into town to go shopping with my mum."

"A young judges' advisor at the Court of Appeal of Palermo and the wife of Judge Giovanni Falcone, although fully aware of the grave dangers to which her husband was exposed, she remained constantly by his side, enduring the same hardships and privations, always encouraging and urging him on in the tough fight he had undertaken against the Mafia. Caught up, alongside the magistrate, in a cowardly and brutal ambush, she sacrificed her life, having lived it by combining her deep feelings of affection, esteem and respect for her husband with her dedication to the highest ideals of justice (reason for the award of the Gold Medal for Civil Valour)."

"Andreotti is a victim of slander [slandered] just as I am. And Judge Carnevale is an even greater victim. All these turncoats make accusations because they’re being paid."

"Balduccio Di Maggio says he drove me there and that I kissed Andreotti. Pa... pa... pa. But I did meet him, accompanied by my bodyguards."

"Riina, like Badalamenti and Provenzano, was a central figure not only in the mafia affairs dealt with in the trials, but also in what Giovanni Falcone called "the Big Game". That is, that part of the history of power which was played out behind the scenes, through violent acts such as massacres and murders carried out by Mafia members, but not solely in the Mafia’s interest: such as the murder of Carlo Alberto Dalla Chiesa."

"È giusto che voi ed il popolo siciliano ed italiano sappiate quello che Di Maggio ha fatto, perché se io non avessi parlato ci sarebbero stati attentati a magistrati ed altro. Nessuno avrebbe avuto il coraggio di affrontare una storia simile, io l' ho fatto senza avere condanne, stavo tanto bene con mia moglie ed i bambini. Lo Stato mi passava uno stipendio, stavo bene, chi me lo faceva fare? Venivo da una storia massacrante e dovevo tornare a massacrarmi?"

"Balduccio Di Maggio dice che mi ha accompagnato lui e mi sono baciato con Andreotti. Pa... pa... pa. Però con la scorta mi sono incontrato con lui."

"(To Giulio Andreotti) In Sicily, we’re in charge, and if you don’t want to wipe out the Christian Democrats completely, you’ll have to do as we say. Otherwise, we’ll take away not only Sicily’s votes, but also those from Reggio Calabria and the whole of southern Italy. You can only count on the votes from the North, where everyone votes Communist – just accept that."

"Ci fu un momento in cui Stefano Bontade avrebbe voluto uccidere Totò Riina e così lo convocò nella sua villa ma il capo di Cosa Nostra inviò al suo posto Raffaele Ganci. Appena il cancello si chiuse, Bontade raggiunse la macchina convinto di trovarsi di fronte Totò Riina. Vedendo Ganci rimase molto deluso. E questo ultimo riferì poi che tutto era pronto per l'agguato: in giardino infatti c'erano almeno 15 persone."

"(About the murder of the investigative journalist Mauro De Mauro) The three Grado brothers, having been close to Stefano Bontate and well-connected within the criminal underworld, may be aware of details regarding his disappearance and the location where the body was buried."

"I think everyone has their own time. Iba talaga sa showbiz, mabilis yung takbo ng buhay - It's really different in showbiz, life moves fast. It's hard to say but I think, for me, she (Zsa Zsa) waited long enough to be happy."

"Ci fu un momento in cui Stefano Bontade avrebbe voluto uccidere Totò Riina e così lo convocò nella sua villa ma il capo di Cosa Nostra inviò al suo posto Raffaele Ganci. Appena il cancello si chiuse, Bontade raggiunse la macchina convinto di trovarsi di fronte Totò Riina. Vedendo Ganci rimase molto deluso. E questo ultimo riferì poi che tutto era pronto per l'agguato: in giardino infatti c'erano almeno 15 persone."

"Falcone lo seguivamo da vicino, era temuto e ammirato dai mafiosi. Aveva il coraggio dell'intelligenza. Diverso da tutti"

"Gli dissi [a Giovanni Falcone] che i mafiosi erano preoccupati perché non c'era più Carnevale. Carnevale era la nostra roccaforte in Cassazione. È incredibile che faccia ancora il giudice."

"Lo sguardo di chi muore sempre quello è. Pensi: è arrivato il mio momento. Quello sguardo l'ho avuto tante volte anch'io."

"[Sull'omicidio del giornalista Mauro De Mauro] Lo strangolarono Stefano Giaconia ed Emanuele D'Agostino."

"The rose colours of madder have justly been considered as supplying a desideratum, and as the most valuable acquisition of the palette in modern times, since perfectly permanent transparent reds and rose-colours were previously unknown to the art of painting."

"Green...contrasts more agreeably with all colours than any other individual colour. It has accordingly been adopted with perfect wisdom in nature as the general garb of the vegetal creation."

"The general powers of green, as a colour, associate it with the ideas of vigour and freshness; and it is hence symbolical of youth, the spring of life being analogous to the spring of the year, in which nature is surprisingly diffuse of this colour in all its freshness, luxuriance, and variety; soliciting the eye of taste, and well claiming the attention of the landscape-painter...Verdure is also the symbol of hope, which, like the animating greenness of plants, leaves us only with life: it is also emblematical of immortality, and the figure of old Saturn or Time is crowned with evergreen."

"As purple, when inclining toward redness, is a regal and pompous colour, it has been used in mythological representations to distinguish the robe of Jupiter the king of Gods, and in general also as a mark of sacerdotal superiority: in its effects on the mind it partakes principally, however, of the powers of its archeus, or ruling colour, blue, and is hence a highly poetical colour, stately, dignifying, sedate, and grave; soothing in its lights, and saddening in its shades: accordingly it contributes to these sentiments under the proper management of the painter and the poet, as it does also popularly in its use in court mournings, and other circumstances of state: hence the poets sing of "purple state.""

"Brown...is the rather indefinite appellation of a very extensive class of colours of warm or tawny hues....The term brown...properly denotes a warm broken colour, of which yellow is a principal constituent: hence brown is in some measure to shade what yellow is to light, and warm or ruddy browns follow yellows naturally as shading or deepening colours."

"Brown is a sober and sedate colour, grave and solemn, but not dismal, and contributes to the expression of strength, stability, and solidity,—vigour, warmth, and rusticity,—and in minor degree to the serious, the sombre, and the sad; not with the painter only, but also with the rhetorician and poet, with whom, nevertheless, many of the broken colours are yet "airy nothings" and "without a name.""

"Gray denotes a class of cool cinereous colours...The grays, like the other semi-neutrals, are sober, modest colours, contributing to the expression of gloom, sadness, frigidity, and fear,—the grave, the obscure, the spectral,—age, decrepitude, and death; bordering in these respects upon the powers of black, but aiding the livelier and more cheering expressions of other colours by diversity, connexion, and contrast, and partaking of the more tender and delicate influence belonging to white, as they approach it in their lighter tints."

"A me Falcone non è mai piaciuto per la verità. (dall'intercettazione telefonica del 20 dicembre 1993)."

"[Riferendosi a Giovanni Falcone e Paolo Borsellino] Il Csm perché non va a vedere le istruttorie fatte dai due Dioscuri, per vederne il livello di professionalità? (dall'intercettazione telefonica del 20 dicembre 1993)."

"I motivi per cui me ne sono andato non sono per la pressione di quel cretino di Falcone, perché i morti li rispetto... certi morti no. (dall'intercettazione telefonica dell'8 marzo 1994)"

"“'And on your buried Genoa | not a handful of earth but | a cascade of dry leaves | with the face of Marx. | In your solitude full of faces | of children and soldiers | have you ever wondered | why challenge the sea?”' (p. 136)"

"Regardless of the game and the result, I would hardly say that the match has all the characteristics of the old class struggle: a proletarian Genoa against a plutocratic and highly decorated Milan. (p. 212)"

"The Genoese seems to be a language created for songs, just as Hebrew is a language of prophecies. (p. 234)"

"It is the people who create problems who do not change."

"Real questions and real answers are not made up of words: they are made up of actions, gestures, deeds, works in which words can also be compressed. Yet everything we do comes at a price in terms of anxiety, failure and, if all goes well, nostalgia."

"It is much more difficult to be understood when doing good than when doing evil."

"The left must not give the elderly a “past”, but a future."

"Capitalism cannot be democratic."

"Anarchism is possible in a new system of needs, finally freed from necessity. Unfortunately, necessities still exist."

"The social discomfort of people suits those who extort consensus: people who are uncomfortable, without work, without money, are easily influenced and are very easy sources of consensus (including electoral consensus)."

"Interviewer: Does money attract you, Mr De André? De André: Yes, it is I who have never managed to attract it."

"What will I do with the money from this record? I don't know whether to spend it on having my face lifted to look younger, or to use it to give myself time to write something serious, to look older."

"History is written by the victors."

"No history of peace has ever been written."

"Why has there never been a writer as Minister of Culture?"

"Television is like history: there are those who make it and those who suffer it."

"Sometimes I wonder if we who sing along with the audience are not just a “club” of romantic young ladies playing “handball” within the walls of a pomegranate garden while outside people are tearing each other apart."

"Don't ask a songwriter what he thought or felt before writing a song: it's precisely because he doesn't want to tell you that he started writing. The answer is in the song."

"Why do I write? Out of fear. For fear that the memory of the lives of the people I write about will be lost. For fear that the memory of me will be lost. Or even just to be protected by a story, to slip into a story and no longer be recognisable, controllable, blackmailable."

"Music is not symbolic. Music represents itself. It is a protomental phenomenon, it anticipates reason. It evokes, but not symbolically."

"There is no radical contradiction in transforming a poem into sung music. If anything, there is a formal need to vulgarise that poem, in the sense of modifying its lexicon by interpolating it with vulgar language, which can reach the feelings and reason of a wider audience. All this with the help of the magic of music, which remains the only universal language I know."

"Artists, damn it! I understand the poor integrated intellectual: he is someone who reads between the lines and understands what is going on much better than others. I understand that if he is not an artist, if he cannot transform what he understands into something else that comes across even better, he has to integrate: the artist is an antibody that society creates against power. If artists integrate, we're screwed!"