"My mother's studies stopped with the third year of primary school, my father with the first. They taught me a deep sense of duty. But nobody was involved in politics in my family"
About this Quote
The subtext is strategic. Bonino, a politician forged in Italy's postwar turbulence and later a prominent figure in European liberalism, is signaling that her compass predates ideology. "Nobody was involved in politics" distances her from factionalism and machine culture, an implicit swipe at Italy's long history of party patronage and family networks. She presents herself as an unbought actor: shaped by work ethic rather than insider access.
The phrasing also performs a kind of democratic austerity. "Stopped" is blunt; it refuses to romanticize poverty or under-education, but it doesn't treat it as shame either. In one breath she acknowledges structural limits; in the next she asserts agency. The effect is to make "duty" feel earned, not announced.
Context matters: for a woman in Italian politics, where credibility can be policed through origin stories, this is a compact counter-narrative. It's not populist rage, it's moral grounding - an argument that seriousness can come from the margins, and that politics, at its best, is chosen service, not family tradition.
Quote Details
| Topic | Family |
|---|---|
| Source | Help us find the source |
| Cite |
Citation Formats
APA Style (7th ed.)
Bonino, Emma. (2026, January 18). My mother's studies stopped with the third year of primary school, my father with the first. They taught me a deep sense of duty. But nobody was involved in politics in my family. FixQuotes. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/my-mothers-studies-stopped-with-the-third-year-of-16122/
Chicago Style
Bonino, Emma. "My mother's studies stopped with the third year of primary school, my father with the first. They taught me a deep sense of duty. But nobody was involved in politics in my family." FixQuotes. January 18, 2026. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/my-mothers-studies-stopped-with-the-third-year-of-16122/.
MLA Style (9th ed.)
"My mother's studies stopped with the third year of primary school, my father with the first. They taught me a deep sense of duty. But nobody was involved in politics in my family." FixQuotes, 18 Jan. 2026, https://fixquotes.com/quotes/my-mothers-studies-stopped-with-the-third-year-of-16122/. Accessed 20 Feb. 2026.
