Quotes by Italian authors

"My father was a farmer and my mother was a farmer, but, my childhood was very good. I am very grateful for my childhood, because it was full of gladness and good humanity"

"We are the world. We are the people and we deserve better not because we're worth it but because no worth can be put on the incalculable, on the infinite, on life"

"I also used these realistic sounds in a psychological way. With The Good, the Bad and the Ugly, I used animal sounds - as you say, the coyote sound - so the sound of the animal became the main theme of the movie"

"In a full heart there is room for everything, and in an empty heart there is room for nothing"

"Because philosophy arises from awe, a philosopher is bound in his way to be a lover of myths and poetic fables. Poets and philosophers are alike in being big with wonder"

"Men are so simple and so much inclined to obey immediate needs that a deceiver will never lack victims for his deceptions"

"It is not titles that honor men, but men that honor titles"

"It is necessary for him who lays out a state and arranges laws for it to presuppose that all men are evil and that they are always going to act according to the wickedness of their spirits whenever they have free scope"

"It is much more secure to be feared than to be loved"

"It is double pleasure to deceive the deceiver"

"It is better to be feared than loved, if you cannot be both"

"If an injury has to be done to a man it should be so severe that his vengeance need not be feared"

"I'm not interested in preserving the status quo; I want to overthrow it"

"The fact is that a man who wants to act virtuously in every way necessarily comes to grief among so many who are not virtuous"

"There is nothing more difficult to take in hand, more perilous to conduct, or more uncertain in its success, than to take the lead in the introduction of a new order of things"

"There is no surer sign of decay in a country than to see the rites of religion held in contempt"

"There is no avoiding war; it can only be postponed to the advantage of others"

"There are three kinds of intelligence: one kind understands things for itself, the other appreciates what others can understand, the third understands neither for itself nor through others. This first kind is excellent, the second good, and the third kind useless"

"The wish to acquire more is admittedly a very natural and common thing; and when men succeed in this they are always praised rather than condemned. But when they lack the ability to do so and yet want to acquire more at all costs, they deserve condemnation for their mistakes"

"The wise man does at once what the fool does finally"

"The promise given was a necessity of the past: the word broken is a necessity of the present"

"The one who adapts his policy to the times prospers, and likewise that the one whose policy clashes with the demands of the times does not"

"The new ruler must determine all the injuries that he will need to inflict. He must inflict them once and for all"

"The more sand has escaped from the hourglass of our life, the clearer we should see through it"

"One change always leaves the way open for the establishment of others"

"Of mankind we may say in general they are fickle, hypocritical, and greedy of gain"

"No enterprise is more likely to succeed than one concealed from the enemy until it is ripe for execution"

"Never was anything great achieved without danger"

"Nature that framed us of four elements, warring within our breasts for regiment, doth teach us all to have aspiring minds"

"Men shrink less from offending one who inspires love than one who inspires fear"