"It is never challenging when you only do one thing in life. It is difficult to do everything, but if you specialise in one thing, you can focus with your head bent over one single thing the whole day and you have less likelihood of getting things wrong."

"If you are a dickhead you will still be a dickhead after tertiary education."

"I have 5,000 books in my home, 1,000 of which I feel are close to my heart. They have always shown me the way. Books are my great passion; I could not live without them."

"I used to always get up at 5 A.M., but now I force myself to stay in bed until 6."

"I believe that there are three things in life that you must absolutely do yourself because nobody can do it in your place: keeping fit, following a diet, and accumulating culture."

"But with a phone call I can understand your mood, your emotions. With an email I can’t. When speaking I can understand if you have a problem in an instant. I understand your fear. But I can begin to cultivate a hope with you."

"Dignity generates responsibility, responsibility generates creativity."

"We must start from the joy of life, from respect, from humanity, because the most important thing in life is having respect for other people. Especially for those who might think very differently from you."

"Since the very beginning, I have had this dream of living and working for the dignity of mankind."

"We have now swapped information for knowledge, which is not the same thing. I do not want to know."

"Man needs dignity even more than he needs bread."

"If you have 1,000 people, you have 1,000 geniuses. They’re just different kinds of genius and a different degree of intensity."

"Mankind is becoming more ethical, but it is not happening because man has decided to become better than he was 100 years ago. It’s because we know we live in a glass house where everybody can see."

"...every human being has an amount of genius in them."

"Financial Accounting is the core of any successful business."

"You get to define what success means to you, and find your own North Star."

"Passion can't be found in your head because it lives in your heart. No matter how hard you try, you cannot figure out your passion by thinking about it. You need to take action and feel your way to your truth, from the inside out."

"As a rule, I always try not to have expectations."

"Deploy introspection and understand what you need in your life."

"It's not about perfection. It's about volume. When you bring volume and consistency on the daily basis, that's where success occurs."

"Set the course by being the captain of your boat."

"In life, business and relationships the key to fulfilment is consistency."

"Achievement is made of sweat and tears, so every single day you need to put in the work, and work as hard as you can!"

"We are never required to be the best, only that we try our best."

"I am a fascist and will die a fascist."

"The P2 Lodge, until its dissolution in 1982 due to the Anselmi-Spadolini law, was a regular lodge of the Grand Orient of Italy, as attested by extensive documentation that passed between the grand masters Gamberini, Salvini and Battelli on the one hand and Licio Gelli on the other."

"Gomez: But in the meantime we know how these things go: he will end up being acquitted."

"Licio Gelli: In this country there is only one charismatic figure who can truly lead it: Silvio Berlusconi."

"I think every citizen of Bologna has a reaction to that surname. It would have been good if he had never set foot in our country and our city."

"Italy, it must be recorded with honesty, albeit bemusement, has produced few more remarkable individuals this century than Licio Gelli."

"With P2 we had Italy in our hands. Then there was the Army, Financial Police, Police: they were clearly commanded by all people from the P2 Masonic lodge. [...] We never wanted to attack and we couldn't attack, but we were a sentinel to prevent the Communist Party from emerging."

"Would Giulio Andreotti have been the true "master" of the P2 Lodge? For heaven's sake... I had the P2, Cossiga the Gladio and Andreotti the Ring."

"[journalist:] what can you tell us about the carnages? I asked her who is behind the carnages. [Gelli:] but you see, there have always been these massacres here. And there always will be. Oh yes, because there is no order. And also in recent times, because in the early days there were no massacres. They possibly took place after '60; before 1960 they never occurred. It's from the '60s: and why am I talking about the '60s? Because in 1960 there was still a certain condition that the people had emerged from a dictatorship of fascism - call it the dictatorship of fascism - and the people had gotten used to working and had to go to work because otherwise they would have been punished and wouldn't have had to go on strike because with the strike it is not that it occurs; the strike makes people more poor."

"We had Italy in our hands. We would never have wanted to attack, but we were like a sentinel, carefully ensuring that the Communist party should never emerge."

"The real power lies in the hands of the holders of the Mass Media."

"[About the P2] My Plan of Democratic Rebirth? I see that 20 years later this Bicameral [the D'Alema Bicameral Parliament Commission] is copying it piece by piece, with the Boato draft. Better late than never. They should at least give me the copyright."

"The real power lies in the hands of the media owners."

"[Journalist:] So none of your plan came to fruition in your opinion? [Gelli:] mah I see on the other hand that everyone is a little watered down. Everyone took some cues from it on the other hand I can't say more. Also because he was aimed only at good. They should, I don't say, talk to me about certain rights. I don't even ask for them because it was not possible to file it with SIAE."

"Mussolini was the son of a blacksmith, Hitler was the son of a house painter and I am the son of a miller."

"It is not up to us to deliver judgments. Only God will be able to tell the truth."

"Every morning I speak to my conscience and the dialogue calms me down. I look at the country, read the newspaper, and think: 'All is becoming a reality little by little, piece by piece'. To be truthful, I should have had the copyright to it. Justice, TV, public order. I wrote about this 30 years ago.... Berlusconi is an extraordinary man, a man of action. This is what Italy needs: not a man of words, but a man of action."

"I personally have done much to have the excommunication of Freemasons removed from the new Code of Canon Law. In its time Freemasonry collaborated in ecumenical activity, then in the drafting of the Canon Code, on the concept that Christian unity also passes through those Anglican and Protestant bishops and pastors, as well as Orthodox, who are Freemasons. Freemasonry also participated in the creation of the Concordated Bible."

"My path to vegetarianism was a slow one, it was something I thought about for a long time, and when I read “Eating Animals” by Jonathan Safran Foer, something in me clicked. I believe that feeding oneself shouldn’t require torturing animals, and that one can take pleasure in food even without meat. … Young people who follow me know that Love Therapy refers to food that doesn’t cause harm to living animals or our planet. … I try to stick to a vegetarian diet because I think what humans are doing to animals is terrible. When I shop, I concentrate on fruits and vegetables. Everyone has a goal, and mine right now is to become vegan – I think of them as modern saints, as they make sacrifices for a better, collective good."

"There is in gardens a plant which one ought to leave dry, although most people water it. It is the weed called envy."

"Cosimo de' Medici... [was] a citizen of rare wisdom and inestimable riches, and therefore most celebrated all over Europe, especially because he had spent over 400,000 ducats in building churches, monasteries and other sumptuous edifices not only in his own country but in many other parts of the world, doing all this with admirable magnificence and truly regal spirit, since he had been more concerned with immortalizing his name than providing for his descendants."

"[Cosimo was] the father of a line of princes, whose name and age are almost synonymous with the restoration of learning; his credit was ennobled into fame; his riches were dedicated to the service of mankind; he corresponded at once with Cairo and London; and a cargo of Indian spices and Greek books were often imported in the same vessel."

"Political questions are settled in [Cosimo's] house. The man he chooses holds office... He it is who decides peace and war... He is king in all but name."

"All those things [meaning works of art] have given me the greatest satisfaction and contentment because they are not only for the honor of God but are likewise for my own remembrance. For fifty years, I have done nothing else but earn money and spend money; and it became clear that spending money gives me greater pleasure than earning it."

"We read that we ought to forgive our enemies; but we do not read that we ought to forgive our friends."