Gustavo Bontadini

"Philosophy and metaphysics are notorious because of the endless disputes that have always devastated them."

"Could evil, sin, catastrophe, and even drugs be the occasional material that God offers to men so that they can somehow see, feel, and understand him?"

"Educators must know how to measure the weight of what they promote."

"[...] philosophy is like the horizon, which can shift here and there, but, as a horizon, is always there."

"Philosophy looks at reality, and is therefore theory, but it looks at it as it relates to the choice of ends and therefore to practical commitment."

"Philosophy, in the great turning point that the history of the human spirit is undergoing today, seems called upon to take responsibility for the new form of humanism that is imposing itself."

"The thirst for knowledge is there, we know this from many signs: everything that can contribute to satisfying it, even if by modest means and to a modest extent, must be considered providential and cultivated with care."

"If it fails in this commitment to penetrate the human, to spread socially, philosophy has missed the opportunity offered to it by the times."

"Between being and nothingness there is no middle ground."

"All disciplines have being as their ultimate material object; but it must be said that metaphysics has it as its formal object."

"A generic humanitarian sentiment can lead to peace as well as war, to oppression as well as freedom, to violence as well as resignation."

"Cornelio Fabro essentially drew on Thomas Aquinas, while someone like Bontadini was first and foremost a follower of Giovanni Gentile."

"I am the first to recognise this. When I began to develop this way of thinking – but let's go back a long way – I was the first to realise that I should leave that university. Interviewer: However, you never broke off your personal relationship or esteem for your teacher, Gustavo Bontadini? Emanuele Severino: We loved each other, and I still get emotional when I think about it. I remember when he was in his last days... ah, what a dear man... I went to see him in Via Stradella – he lived in Via Stradella, near Corso Buenos Aires – and I said to him: “Maestro, I am Emanuele Severino”. He, who had not opened his eyes for days, gave a start and opened his arms to me. We embraced for a long time. Then he let go of my arms and I left him."