All Quotes

"I have come to believe that the West embarked on the path of logic, and therefore of philosophy and science, because it had a linear writing system, that is, a highly idealized alphabetic writing system."

"This is where the decline of public truth comes in, so that the sense of the end of politics that we are experiencing today was already perfectly clear to Nietzsche, who spoke of the end of great politics. When Europe realizes the violence inherent in the Western political project, everyday life also loses its certainties. Forms, places, structures, and institutions go mad. [...] We no longer believe that the West, with its conceptual apparatus, is the destiny of the world. At this point, it would be natural for a dialogue to begin again between different cultures that once had a common stock."

"(Referring to ideograms, ancient sophia, and Zen practice) The latter, for example, is an exercise that teaches us to inhabit the exercise itself. There is no answer to the question of why we should focus on breathing. In Zen practice, the why is sucked into the concentration itself. In the same way, philosophers today can only inhabit doubt. Not asking why doubt exists, a question that would presuppose a way out of it, but practicing it. A bit like Socrates did more than two thousand years ago. And it is no coincidence that he never wrote anything."

"The kidnapping of Moro must be reflected upon at all times because it serves as a reference point for our democracy and a constant reminder not to let our guard down against all the dangers that could undermine it."

"Events that occur at the supranational level, entities that have been established at the supranational level, often without democratic legitimacy, are capable of presenting democracies with a fait accompli. Let me give you an example: the amendment to the Constitution regarding the requirement for a balanced budget, which I must say went largely unnoticed, was not the result of a national debate, but rather the result of the European Central Bank more or less saying – and I'm simplifying here – “Either you put this clause in your constitution, or we will turn off the taps and there will be no salaries at the end of the month”. I must say that this is one of the choices I am most ashamed of having made."

"We must profoundly change the way we enforce punishment, and we are doing so: our punishment is closely linked to prison, and for a long time it was said that prison was the solution to all ills: instead, we must shift towards financial penalties because a mafia member or a corrupt individual has relatively little fear of spending a month in prison if they can pocket a few million euros; they are afraid if you threaten to take away their money and perhaps even their house: I believe we must move in this direction."

"Particle Physics by its complexity is one of the best schools to learn critical thinking."

"It is fair to ask whether the Italian legal system is capable of withstanding the impact of such profound changes in the global arena, while inevitably paying the price, as mentioned above, for the increasingly narrow limits of the national dimension. The constitutional framework continues to offer important protection for fundamental rights. Contrary to the foreign-influenced suggestions that often emerge in our country, Italy is appreciated for the balance it has achieved between security requirements and the defence of constitutional guarantees, whereas other states have adopted strategies that have resulted in a sharp limitation of citizens' rights. The same can be said for the objective of maintaining and guaranteeing the autonomy and independence of the judiciary, the mandatory nature of criminal proceedings, and the regulatory provisions on appeals, which still offer important legal protection for citizens' rights. Historically created to curb the abuses of executive power, this robust legal and institutional framework now acts as a bulwark against dangerous populist tendencies that undermine the levels of legal civilisation achieved by our country."

"Today, I feel I can claim significant progress has been made in terms of certain fundamental rights and that I can represent with conviction the values for which we have worked. The law on civil unions, which has now been implemented, is inspired by the value of effective equality in secularism. We now have a law that represents a turning point in civilisation for our country. The law on assistance for people with severe disabilities who lack family support is oriented towards the value of protecting vulnerable people. The same law finally introduces, for the first time in our legal system, a generalised system of compensation for victims of intentional violent crimes. I believe this is also an important sign of civilisation. So too is the law that tackles the hateful phenomenon of “caporalato”, approved last year, a phenomenon that undermines the dignity and value of workers. It is also our duty to safeguard fundamental guarantees in the area of reception and the right to asylum."

"One of the leading contemporary scholars of law and the state, Ronald Dworkin, wrote: “Equal respect is the sovereign virtue of the political community: if it is lacking, government is merely tyranny; but when a nation's wealth is distributed very unequally, as is currently the case even in very prosperous nations, then its equal respect appears suspect”. So, if we want to give our fellow citizens the equal respect they deserve in the law and in the exercise of jurisdiction, we must take action to ensure that the nation's wealth is not distributed very unequally."

"We have known for years that Salvini had decided to fan the flames of people's fears about the wave of migration. Now we have discovered that Di Maio and the Five Star Movement are doing the same."

"The Tar must be changed without demonising it, clarifying the scope of competence of politics and that of the administrative court, which often gets involved in decisions that should be made by politicians."

"I believe that recognising that the mafia is no longer confined to its traditional areas of operation, that it acts using financial instruments, and that it infiltrates the economy, political parties and society in different contexts, is a useful sign of awareness. The mafia has become a large multinational organisation with links to criminal organisations in other countries. We need new tools to combat it."

"With the anti-Mafia code, we have strengthened the tools for attacking illicit assets, which in my opinion continues to be the main front, and we have introduced the offence of self-laundering, which allows us to intervene even when the accumulation of capital dates back a long time. However, we are still in the realm of repression."

"Interviewer: How can we combat the Mafia? Andrea Orlando: By not only focusing on how to combat the Mafia, but also on how to build social, economic, political, institutional and professional entities that are impervious to the Mafia. Antibodies are not only effective against the Mafia, but also against other phenomena such as corruption, which is increasingly being used by the Mafia to infiltrate institutions. For example, I believe it is essential to have a law regulating the functioning of political parties and lobbies."

"(About Attilio Fontana's statements about race) The words are a Freudian slip, because what he said is what many people think, and this can only be cause for concern. I believe that behind much of the xenophobic propaganda that has been fuelled in recent years there is also a racist element."

"The legal profession is a bulwark in the defence of rights and democracy. It is a fundamental voice in the protection of guarantees, especially for those who have less of a voice to defend themselves."

"The appointment of Draghi has had an initial effect. Salvini became a pro-European within 24 hours."

"Are we sure that the appointments of Fontana and La Russa as presidents of the Chambers are stumbling blocks? I don't think so. These choices are linked to the presence of Meloni at the Vox rally, where the star was Polish Prime Minister (Mateusz Morawiecki), and where there were those nostalgic for South American dictatorships and representatives of the far right. Meloni pointed to Poland and the Czech Republic as models."

"(About the Democratic Party) We are paying the price for never having seriously addressed the cultural profile of the Renzi era. Renzi has been used as a scapegoat."

"The majority vocation, as conceived by the PD, no longer exists. A radical, post-ideological wing has formed, as well as a liberal wing."

"Now, if one speaks of the limitations of capitalism, there is always someone who will label you a communist or draw antagonistic conclusions."

"The problem at the moment, in the PD, is not the difference in ideas but the silence of ideas."

"[...] we believe that it is urgent to introduce a statutory minimum wage into our labour market regulation system. Low-paid work was already a serious scourge before the COVID-19 pandemic in Italy."

"[...] As economists explain, inflation is a particularly unfair tax, because it affects those who have more and those who have less in the same way and, therefore, hurts those who have less more, a bit like the flat tax, but this inflation, due to its composition, further accentuates this characteristic."

"[...] already today, the citizenship income functions as a form of income support for many workers. Over the past three years, between 15 and 20 per cent of citizenship income recipients were people in regular employment."

"[...] the citizenship income, like any basic income, is a factor that promotes competition and stimulates wage growth, especially in the lower income brackets."

"[...] Does collective bargaining today have the same degree of pervasiveness and homogeneity that it had in the past? Studies tell us no, because poor-quality jobs are more concentrated in the south, in small businesses and in the service sector, i.e. where trade unions have weakened, where jobs have become more precarious, where undeclared work is more prevalent, and where the failure to address these disparities is one of the causes of the regional divides that characterise our country."

"[...] Is collective bargaining still capable of pushing wages upwards, as it did for a long period in our country? And the answer, again, if we look at the last thirty years, is unfortunately “no”. Negotiation alone does not push wages up, so much so that wages in Italy have been stagnant for thirty years."

"It is good to cut the tax wedge, very good indeed, but cutting the tax wedge, in itself, does not restart a trend dynamic. [...] We have cut the tax wedge on several occasions, but this has not triggered a recovery in wages."

"[...] we believe that the decision to introduce a minimum wage is not only a matter of fairness, but also a choice to identify another model of competition for our country, a choice to build an idea of development that is not based on reducing labour costs and tax evasion. This choice is one that can revitalise our economic system."

"[...] not only do we not want humiliation to enter school, we also want it to disappear from the world of work."

"I would remind the likeable and astute Mr Orlando that you, astute Mr Orlando, were Minister of Labour for about a year and a half and did nothing on this issue (of the minimum wage)."

"You have to keep practicing, you don’t stop even when you are upset, you must carry on. When you are sad, you do it, when you are happy, you do it as well. There is no other magic"

"When it happens, it happens."

"Marriage is an investment that takes a lot of time to yield: that is because you invest your time, energy, money and everything. And you have to be careful, because what suits you might not suit the other person."

"I think there were three or four finalists, and I came on campus for the on-campus interview — and actually this parking lot right there — we pulled into the space and I was practicing in my mind. To go through a presidential search, it's so intense. And one of my mentors told me, "You should throw your hat in that ring to go for that position as a practice, to do a search." So I was practicing."

"And there's been some challenging times — clearly navigating the university through a pandemic, a global pandemic — a lot of triumphs and many trials. The university is postured in a very good place."

"We are going to launch a capital campaign, and I wanted to give someone the opportunity to get to know the city and to most of all get to know the university so that you can get people to lean into investing in the university's mission."

"I love my students and I love this mission and I love the role that Huston-Tillotson University plays in Austin and in Austin's prosperity and in higher education."

"I did not attend a historically Black college, but I've dedicated the last almost 23 years of my professional career to the mission because there's something that happens to young people on these campuses."

"We've worked really, really hard for us to serve that purpose in Austin. We have all kinds of things happening on our campus that are reflective of that. We are the host site for Earth Day. We've had the Texas Tribune have speakers on campus that are very thought-provoking speakers or topics that are very thought-provoking."

"Socially and culturally, Tekumel is as complex – and as alien to modern thinking – as Byzantium, ancient Egypt, Tenochtitlan, or the India of the Mughals. [...] The discerning reader will indeed perceive elements taken from [...] Egypt, the Aztecs and Mayans, the Hellenic Age, Mughal India, and mediaeval Europe."

"I lived in India for many years, and I often encountered very intelligent, sophisticated people who had absolutely no curiosity about how things worked or technology. In fact, there are many people here, myself included, who are not "scientifically curious" about how an electric motor works, how far away the stars are, or what materials make up their clothing, their toothpaste, or their shoes. We take some things as beyond the need for curiosity; other peoples take more, other, and different things as such. The tribal people I lived with in India saw the airplane from Calcutta to Delhi fly overhead every day; they shrugged, wondered briefly if it was a steel bird, and then went back to being totally uncurious about it."

"I co-founded with the SFP (French Physics Society), a series of fundamental physics schools for the Maghreb region called EPAM."

"I directed the school, which took place in Morocco/Taza."

"We American males make fun of each other, using jibes and sarcasm to embellish our conversations and establish bonds. When I did this with Indian and Pakistani friends, I got myself into lots of trouble! They have a wonderful sense of humour, too, but the manifestations and the "buttons they push" were VERY different. I have now learned to behave quite differently in their society. This is exaggerated when I deal with non-Westerners who have less exposure to American/European norms. Try kidding a Baluchi tribesman about his wife, and he’ll hand you your head!"

"If man has direct, hot-line access to God through prayer - and if God is "Good" (i.e. on mankind’s side essentially) – then what need is there of physical devices: weapons, crucifixes, talismans, holy water, and the like? On this one I pass. Go ask your friendly neighbourhood theologian."

"I cannot conceive of an ancient, classical, mediaeval, or 'legendary' world without some form of organised religion... 'Religion,' in some form or another, is so central to the lives of most human beings that it cannot be omitted, minimised, or ignored"

"Tolkien had this Britisher's sort of attitude that religion is something you do in church, and... It doesn't really do that much to your daily life... Whereas I’d been living and working in societies where religion is just permeating the atmosphere... Even the simple villagers are behaving in ways that they consider related directly to religion, rather than secular politics or something like this."