Italian

Explore 89 quotes originally in Italian

The marble not yet carved can hold the form
Of every thought the greatest artist has.

Michelangelo

More information about this quote

Topic

Untapped potential Art

Author

Michelangelo

Source

Sonnet 15

Medium

Poem

Language

Italian

Time

1564 1560s 16th century

Era

European Renaissance

Authentication Score 3

Original Citation

Michelangelo. Non ha l' ottimo artista [The Lover and the Sculptor]. c. 1623.

Current Citation

Michelangelo. "Sonnet 15: The Lover and the Sculptor." Sonnets, translated by Elizabeth Jennings. Routledge, 2002.

Love and the gracious heart are a single thing…
One can no more be without the other
Than the reasoning mind without its reason.

Dante Alighieri

La Vita Nuova

Buy La Vita Nuova at Amazon Buy La Vita Nuova at Amazon
Read La Vita Nuova Project Gutenberg

More information about this quote

Topic

Love Kindness Grace

Author

Dante Alighieri

Source

La Vita Nuova

Language

Italian

Time

1294 1290s 13th century

Era

Middle Ages

Authentication Score 2

Original Citation

Dante. La Vita Nuova [The New Life]. 1294, ch. 16.

Current Citation

Dante. Vita Nuova, translated by Mark Musa. Oxford University Press, 2008, ch. 16.

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

Buy The Notebooks of Leonardo da Vinci at Amazon Buy The Notebooks of Leonardo da Vinci at Amazon
Read The Notebooks of Leonardo Da Vinci, Complete at Project Gutenberg

More information about this quote

Topic

Elegance of nature Nature Man and nature

Author

Leonardo da Vinci

Source

Journals of Leonardo da Vinci

Medium

Personal journal

Language

Italian

Time

1519 1510s 16th century

Era

European Renaissance

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Da Vinci, Leonardo. The Notebooks of Leonardo da Vinci. c. 1883.

Love hath so long possessed me for his own
And made his lordship so familiar.

Dante Alighieri

La Vita Nuova

Buy La Vita Nuova at Amazon Buy La Vita Nuova at Amazon
Read La Vita Nuova Project Gutenberg

More information about this quote

Topic

Power of love Love

Author

Dante Alighieri

Source

La Vita Nuova

Language

Italian

Time

1294 1290s 13th century

Era

Middle Ages

Authentication Score 2

Original Citation

Dante. La Vita Nuova [The New Life]. 1294, ch. 24.

Current Citation

Dante. Vita Nuova, translated by Mark Musa. Oxford University Press, 2008, ch. 24.

They dug for each graveyard a huge trench, in which they laid the corpses as they arrived by hundreds at a time, piling them up tier upon tier as merchandise is stowed in a ship.

Giovanni Boccaccio

Buy The Decameron at Amazon Buy The Decameron at Amazon
Read The Decameron at Project Gutenberg

More information about this quote

Topic

The Black Death Plagues Pandemics

Author

Giovanni Boccaccio

Source

The Decameron

Language

Italian

Time

1353 1350s 14th century

Era

Middle Ages

Authentication Score 2

Original Citation

Boccaccio, Giovanni. The Decameron. c. 1353.

Current Citation

Boccaccio, Giovanni. The Decameron, translated by Wayne A. Rebhorn. W. W. Norton & Company, 2015.

In Sicily, women are more dangerous than shotguns.

The Godfather

Watch The Godfather at Amazon Watch The Godfather at Amazon

More information about this quote

Topic

Beautiful women Sicily Italy

Speaker

Calo

Actor

Franco Citti

Source

The Godfather

Medium

Film

Genre

Crime (film) Crime

Language

Italian

Time

1972 1970s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

The Godfather. Directed by Francis Ford Coppola, Paramount Pictures/Alfran Productions, 1972.

There was no one who wept for any death, for all awaited death.

Agnolo di Tura del Grosso

More information about this quote

Topic

The Black Death Plagues Pandemics

Author

Agnolo di Tura del Grosso

Source

Cronica Maggiore

Genre

Historical literature

Language

Italian

Time

14th century

Authentication Score 2

Original Citation

Di Tura del Grosso, Agnolo. Cronica Maggiore. c. 1350.

Current Citation

Di Tura del Grosso, Agnolo. "Cronica Maggiore." Quoted in The Black Death: A Turning Point in History?, written by William M. Bowsky. Holt, Rinehart & Winston, 1971.

The Italian proletariat needs a blood bath for its force to be renewed.

Benito Mussolini

More information about this quote

Topic

Fascism

Author

Benito Mussolini

Language

Italian

Time

1920 1920s 20th century

Authentication Score 1

Citation

Mussolini, Benito. Editorial. Il Popolo d'Italia, 1920.

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.

Niccolo Machiavelli

Read Discourse on Livy at Project Gutenberg

More information about this quote

Topic

Human nature Political theory

Author

Niccolo Machiavelli

Source

Discourses on Livy

Genre

Political literature Philosophical literature

Language

Italian

Time

1531 1510s 16th century

Era

European Renaissance

Authentication Score 1

Original Citation

Machiavelli, Niccolò. Discorsi sopra la prima deca di Tito Livio [Discourses on the First Ten of Titus Livy]. Papal Privilege, 1531, bk. 1, ch. 3.

Current Citation

Machiavelli, Niccolo. Discourses on Livy, translated by Julia Conaway Bondanella and Peter Bondanella. Oxford University Press, 2009, bk. 1, ch. 3.

He is glorified not in one, but in countless suns, not in a single earth, a single world, but in a thousand thousand, I say in an infinity of worlds.

Giordano Bruno

More information about this quote

Topic

God and the universe The universe Multiverse theory The infinite God

Author

Giordano Bruno

Source

On the Infinite Universe and Worlds

Genre

Philosophical literature

Language

Italian

Time

1584 1580s 16th century

Era

European Renaissance

Authentication Score 2

Citation

Bruno, Giordano. De l'infinito, universo e mondi [On the Infinite Universe and Worlds]. London, 1584.

Marriage is a sacrament which I detest... Because it is the tomb of love.

Giacomo Casanova

More information about this quote

Topic

Fading love Love Marriage

Author

Giacomo Casanova

Source

Histoire de Ma Vie

Genre

Autobiography and memoir

Language

Italian

Time

1838 1830s 19th century

Authentication Score 3

Original Citation

Casanova, Giacomo. Histoire de ma vie [History of My Life]. Paris, c. 1838.

Current Citation

Casanova, Giacomo. History of My Life, vols. 9 & 10, translated by Willard R. Trask. Johns Hopkins University Press, 1997.

Learning does not consist only of knowing what we must or we can do, but also of knowing what we could do and perhaps should not do.

Umberto Eco

The Name of the Rose

Buy The Name of the Rose at Amazon Buy The Name of the Rose at Amazon

More information about this quote

Topic

Learning Wisdom

Speaker

William

Author

Umberto Eco

Source

The Name of the Rose

Medium

Novel

Language

Italian

Time

1980 1980s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Original Citation

Eco, Umberto. Il nome della rosa [The Name of the Rose]. Bompiani, 1980.

Current Citation

Eco, Humberto. The Name of the Rose, translated by William Weaver. HarperVia, 2014.

We never have despair without some small hope.

Pier Paolo Pasolini

More information about this quote

Topic

Hope Hopelessness and despair

Author

Pier Paolo Pasolini

Source

The Religion of My Time

Medium

Poem

Language

Italian

Time

1961 1960s 20th century

Authentication Score 1

Original Citation

Pasolini, Pier Paolo. "Un'Appendice alla 'Religione': Una luce [An Appendix to 'Religion': The Light]." La religione del mio tempo. [The Religion of My Time]. c. 1961.

Current Citation

Pasolini, Pier Paolo. "Appendice alla 'Religione': Una Luce/Appendix to 'The Religion of My Time: A Light." The Selected Poetry of Pier Paolo Pasolinia: A Bilingual Edition, edited and translated by Stephen Sartarelli. University of Chicago Press, 2015.

What is love? There is nothing in the world, neither man nor Devil nor any thing, that I hold as suspect as love, for it penetrates the soul more than any other thing. Nothing exists that so fills and binds the heart as love does. Therefore, unless you have those weapons that subdue it, the soul plunges through love into an immense abyss.

Umberto Eco

The Name of the Rose

Buy The Name of the Rose at Amazon Buy The Name of the Rose at Amazon

More information about this quote

Topic

Dangers of love Nature of love Love

Author

Umberto Eco

Source

The Name of the Rose

Medium

Novel

Language

Italian

Time

1980 1980s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Original Citation

Eco, Umberto. Il nome della rosa [The Name of the Rose]. Bompiani, 1980.

Current Citation

Eco, Humberto. The Name of the Rose, translated by William Weaver. HarperVia, 2014.

The contours of its legs are extremely beautiful, along with the splendid articulations and grace of its flanks, a sweeter and more graceful pose has never been seen that could equal it, nor have feet, hands, and a head ever been produced which so well match all the other parts of the body in skill of workmanship or design. To be sure, anyone who sees the statue need not be concerned with seeing any other piece of sculpture done in our times or in any other period by any other artist.

Giorgio Vasari

The Lives of the Artist

On Michelangelo's David.

More information about this quote

Topic

Sculpture

Author

Giorgio Vasari

Source

The Lives of the Artist

Language

Italian

Time

1550 1550s 16th century

Authentication Score 3

Original Citation

Vasari, Giorgio. Le vite de' più eccellenti pittori, scultori, e architettori [Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects]. Florence, c. 1568.

Current Citation

Vasari, Giorgio. The Lives of the Artists, translated by Julia Conaway Bondanella and Peter Bondanella. Oxford University Press, 2008, pt. 3.

A classic is a book that has never finished saying what it has to say.

Italo Calvino

More information about this quote

Topic

Power of literature Books

Author

Italo Calvino

Source

L'Espresso

Medium

Magazine

Language

Italian

Time

1981 1980s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Original Citation

Calvino, Italo. "Perché leggere i classici? [Why Read the Classics?]" L'Espresso, 28 June 1981.

Current Citation

Calvino, Italo. Why Read the Classics? Penguin Classics, 2009.

Love. Of course, love. Flames for a year, ashes for thirty.

Giuseppe di Lampedusa

The Leopard

Buy The Leopard at Amazon Buy The Leopard at Amazon

More information about this quote

Topic

Love

Author

Giuseppe di Lampedusa

Source

The Leopard

Medium

Novel

Statement Type

Metaphor, analogy and simile

Language

Italian

Time

1957 1950s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Original Citation

Lampedusa, Giuseppe Tomasi. Il Gattopard [The Leopard]. Feltrinelli, 1958, ch. 2.

Current Citation

Lampedusa, Giuseppe. The Leopard, translated by Archibald Colquhoun. Pantheon, 2007, ch. 2.

Private property is a natural fruit of labor, a product of intense activity of man, acquired trough his energetic determination to ensure and develop with his own strength his own existence and that of his family, and to create for himself and his own an existence of just freedom, not only economic, but also political, cultural and religious.

Pope Pius XII

More information about this quote

Topic

Property rights

Speaker

Pope Pius XII

Medium

Radio broadcast Speech

Language

Italian

Time

1944 1940s 20th century

Authentication Score 1

Citation

Pope Pius XII. "Radiomessaggio di su Santita Pio XII Nel V Anniversario Dall'inizio della Guerra Mondiale [Radio Message from His Holiness Pius XII on the Fifth Anniversary of the Beginning of the World War]." Federal Communications Commission. 1 Sept. 1944, Vatican City, Rome, Italy.

Up to the moment of this writing... The Nazi concentration camp system still remains a unicum, both in its extent and its quality. At no other place or time has one seen a phenomenon so unexpected and so complex: never have so many human lives been extinguished in so short a time, and with so lucid a combination of technological ingenuity, fanaticism, and cruelty.

Primo Levi

The Drowned and the Saved

Buy The Drowned and the Saved at Amazon Buy The Drowned and the Saved at Amazon

More information about this quote

Topic

The Holocaust

Author

Primo Levi

Source

The Drowned and the Saved

Genre

Historical literature

Language

Italian

Time

1986 1980s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Original Citation

Levi, Primo. I sommersi e i salvati [The Drowned and the Saved]. Einaudi, 1986, preface.

Current Citation

Levi, Primo. The Drowned and the Saved, translated by Raymond Rosenthal. Simon & Schuster, 2017, preface.

There are three classes of intellects: one which comprehends by itself; another which appreciates what others comprehend; and a third which neither comprehends by itself nor by the showing of others; the first is most excellent, the second is good, the third is useless.

Niccolo Machiavelli

The Prince

Buy The Prince at Amazon Buy The Prince at Amazon
Read The Prince at Project Gutenberg

More information about this quote

Topic

Intelligence

Author

Niccolo Machiavelli

Source

The Prince

Medium

Treatise

Genre

Political literature Philosophical literature

Language

Italian

Time

1532 1530s 16th century

Authentication Score 2

Original Citation

Machiavelli, Niccolò. Il Principe [The Prince]. Rome: Antonio Blado d'Asola, 1532.

Current Citation

Machiavelli, Nicolò. The Prince, translated by Peter Bondanella. Oxford University Press, 2005.