1540 Quotes by Italian authors

Italian sayings carry the warmth of a kitchen and the gravity of a cathedral, braiding tenderness with irony. Love, beauty, and loyalty sit beside hunger, time, and fate; saints and skeptics share the same bench. From Dante to De André, voices favor clarity over ornament, quick wit over sermon, turning daily life into distilled wisdom. Coastal winds and factory smoke, dialect and high lyric, a moral compass that sways yet does not snap, and an aftertaste, espresso-bitter, sunlit, define their music.

See the complete list of authors from Italy

"Pessimism of the spirit; optimism of the will"

Antonio Gramsci, Politician

"The difference between style and fashion is quality"

Giorgio Armani, Designer

Small: Giorgio Armani

"Fascism should rightly be called Corporatism, as it is the merger of corporate and government power"

Benito Mussolini, Politician

Small: Benito Mussolini

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

Niccolo Machiavelli, Writer

Small: Niccolo Machiavelli

"Human subtlety will never devise an invention more beautiful, more simple or more direct than does nature because in her inventions nothing is lacking, and nothing is superfluous"

Leonardo da Vinci, Artist

Small: Leonardo da Vinci

"Where the spirit does not work with the hand, there is no art"

Leonardo da Vinci, Artist

Small: Leonardo da Vinci

"Beware of the person of one book"

Thomas Aquinas, Theologian

Small: Thomas Aquinas

"The challenge of modernity is to live without illusions and without becoming disillusioned"

Antonio Gramsci, Politician

"Following the light of the sun, we left the Old World"

Christopher Columbus, Adventurer

Small: Christopher Columbus

"Hell begins on the day when God grants us a clear vision of all that we might have achieved, of all the gifts which we have wasted, of all that we might have done which we did not do"

Gian Carlo Menotti, Composer

"Entrepreneurs are simply those who understand that there is little difference between obstacle and opportunity and are able to turn both to their advantage"

Niccolo Machiavelli, Writer

Small: Niccolo Machiavelli

"Who sows virtue reaps honor"

Leonardo da Vinci, Artist

Small: Leonardo da Vinci

"Stand aside for a while and leave room for learning, observe carefully what children do, and then, if you have understood well, perhaps teaching will be different from before"

Loris Malaguzzi, Teacher

Small: Loris Malaguzzi

"There is no greater sorrow than to recall happiness in times of misery"

Dante Alighieri, Poet

"The sound of the human voice is the best of nature but only if it comes out from the feelings"

Giovanni Morassutti, Actor

Small: Giovanni Morassutti

"He conquers who endures"

Aulus Persius Flaccus, Poet

"Fascism was a counter-revolution against a revolution that never took place"

Ignazio Silone, Author

"The things that we love tell us what we are"

Thomas Aquinas, Theologian

Small: Thomas Aquinas

"Every judgement of conscience, be it right or wrong, be it about things evil in themselves or morally indifferent, is obligatory, in such wise that he who acts against his conscience always sins"

Thomas Aquinas, Theologian

Small: Thomas Aquinas

"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"

Thomas Aquinas, Theologian

Small: Thomas Aquinas

"You shall find out how salt is the taste of another man's bread, and how hard is the way up and down another man's stairs"

Dante Alighieri, Poet

"I believe that if everyone would follow what they want it would be a very different world"

Giovanni Morassutti, Actor

Small: Giovanni Morassutti

"Creating the kind of connections between people that lead to collective civic action, political expression, community dialogue, shared cultural experiences"

Giovanni Morassutti, Actor

Small: Giovanni Morassutti

"Sometimes I wonder if it does exist such a thing called personality"

Giovanni Morassutti, Actor

Small: Giovanni Morassutti

"We know how we were born, but know not how we will die"

Giovanni Morassutti, Actor

Small: Giovanni Morassutti

"Rome is the city of echoes, the city of illusions, and the city of yearning"

Giotto di Bondone, Artist

Small: Giotto di Bondone

"If you have men who will exclude any of God's creatures from the shelter of compassion and pity, you will have men who will deal likewise with their fellow men"

Francis of Assisi, Saint

Small: Francis of Assisi

"He only half dies who leaves an image of himself in his sons"

Carlo Goldoni, Playwright

Small: Carlo Goldoni

"Reason itself is fallible, and this fallibility must find a place in our logic"

Nicola Abbagnano, Philosopher

Small: Nicola Abbagnano

"It is the State which educates its citizens in civic virtue, gives them a consciousness of their mission and welds them into unity"

Benito Mussolini, Politician

Small: Benito Mussolini

"War is to man what maternity is to a woman. From a philosophical and doctrinal viewpoint, I do not believe in perpetual peace"

Benito Mussolini, Politician

Small: Benito Mussolini

"One who deceives will always find those who allow themselves to be deceived"

Niccolo Machiavelli, Writer

Small: Niccolo Machiavelli

"To bear with patience wrongs done to oneself is a mark of perfection, but to bear with patience wrongs done to someone else is a mark of imperfection and even of actual sin"

Thomas Aquinas, Theologian

Small: Thomas Aquinas

"Learning and teaching should not stand on opposite banks and just watch the river flow by; instead, they should embark together on a journey down the water. Through an active, reciprocal exchange, teaching can strengthen learning how to learn"

Loris Malaguzzi, Teacher

Small: Loris Malaguzzi

"Consider your origins: you were not made to live as brutes, but to follow virtue and knowledge"

Dante Alighieri, Poet

"Find a good teacher, don't betray yourself to succeed and be a better person before being a better actor"

Giovanni Morassutti, Actor

Small: Giovanni Morassutti

"What spirit is so empty and blind, that it cannot recognize the fact that the foot is more noble than the shoe, and skin more beautiful than the garment with which it is clothed?"

Michelangelo, Artist

Small: Michelangelo

"If people knew how hard I worked to get my mastery, it wouldn't seem so wonderful at all"

Michelangelo, Artist

Small: Michelangelo

"The chains that bind us the most closely are the ones we have broken"

Antonio Porchia, Poet

Small: Antonio Porchia

"We all need illusions. That's why we love movies"

Monica Bellucci, Actress

Small: Monica Bellucci

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