Favourite quotations/Citazioni preferite

Individuality

Know thyself.

(From the Ancient Greek γνῶθι σαὐτόν - words inscribed onto the forecourt wall of Apollo's Temple at Delphi)

To be what we are, and to become what we are capable of becoming, is the only end of life.

(Robert Louis Stevenson)

Consistency

This above all: to thine own self be true,

And it must follow as the night the day

Thou canst not then be false to any man.

(Shakespeare,  Hamlet,  Act. I, III, 78-80)

Everyone thinks of changing the world, but no one thinks of changing himself.

(Leo Tolstoy, Pamphlets)

(...) libertà va cercando, ch'è sì cara,

come sa chi per lei vita rifiuta.   

       Tu 'l sai, ché non ti fu per lei amara

in Utica la morte, ove lasciasti

la vesta ch'al gran dì sarà sì chiara.   

(Dante, Purgatorio, Canto I, 71-75)

Non mi manca quello che mostravi di essere

Mi manca quello che pensavo tu fossi. 

(Alda Merini)

No man, for any considerable period, can wear a face to himself and another to the multitude, without finally getting bewildered as to which may be the true.

(Nathaniel Hawthorne)

Si può credere nelle azioni umane senza credere che esistano gli uomini ?

Io non vendo saggezza perché so di non sapere.

(Platone, Fedone, 'Socrate')

I give you the mausoleum of all hope and desire... I give it to you not that you may remember time, but that you might forget it now and then for a moment and not spend all of your breath trying to conquer it. Because no battle is ever won he said. They are not even fought. The field only reveals to man his own folly and despair, and victory is an illusion of philosophers and fools.

(William Faulkner, The sound and the fury)

Carpe diem (?) - Life is fleeting...

Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn't do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbour. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover. 

(Mark Twain)

Quand on aime la vie, on aime le passé, parce que c’est le présent tel qu’il a survécu dans la mémoire humaine. 

(Marguerite Yourcenar, Les yeux ouverts)

(...) Quale delle foglie,

tale è la stirpe degli umani. Il vento

brumal la sparge a terra, e le ricrea

la germogliante selva a primavera.

Così l'uom nasce, così muor.   

(Omero, Iliade, Libro VI  - 'Traduzione' di Vincenzo Monti)

Nous ne savons jamais si nous ne sommes pas en train de manquer notre vie.

(Marcel Proust, Jean Santeuil)

Clocks slay time... time is dead as long as it is being clicked off by little wheels; only when the clock stops does time come to life.

(William Faulkner, The sound and the fury)

Courage

Real courage is… when you know you’re licked before you begin but you begin anyway and you see it through no matter what. You rarely win, but sometimes you do.

(‘Atticus’ in How to kill a mockingbird by Harper Lee)

Courage is what it takes to stand up and speak; courage is also what it takes to sit down and listen.

(Winston Churchill)

Givers

A bone to the dog is not charity. Charity is the bone shared with the dog, when you are just as hungry as the dog.

(Jack London)

You are innocent when you dream (Tom Waits)

Forgiveness is the answer to the child's dream of a miracle by which what is broken is made whole again, what is soiled is made clean again.

(Dag Hammarskjold)

Take it easy

In trouble to be troubled, is to have your trouble doubled.

(Daniel Defoe, Moll Flanders)

Perspective

The reverse side also has a reverse side.

(Japanese proverb)

On n'est pas libre tant qu'on désire, qu'on veut, qu'on craint peut-être tant qu'on vit.

(Marguerite Yourcenar, L’oeuvre en noir)

Deux excès: exclure la raison, n'admettre que la raison.

(Blaise Pascal, Pensées, 253)

Il est bien plus beau de savoir quelque chose de tout que de savoir tout d'une chose; cette universalité est la plus belle.

(Blaise Pascal, Pensées, 37)

A man is the sum of his misfortunes. One day you'd think misfortune would get tired but then time is your misfortune. 

(William Faulkner, The sound and the fury) 

Rover

Mais les vrais voyageurs sont ceux-là seuls qui partent

Pour partir; coeurs légers, semblables aux ballons,

De leur fatalité jamais ils ne s'écartent,

Et, sans savoir pourquoi, disent toujours: Allons!

(Charles Baudelaire, Le Voyage)

People travel to wonder at the height of the mountains, at the huge waves of the seas, at the long course of the rivers, at the vast compass of the ocean, at the circular motion of the stars, and yet they pass by themselves without wondering.

(St. Augustine)

I am a believer, still

My religion is very simple. My religion is kindness.

(Dalai Lama)

You only see what you look for, and you only recognize what you know.

(Mark Twain)

Ethics

Music... will help dissolve your perplexities and purify your character and sensibilities, and in time of care and sorrow, will keep a fountain of joy alive in you.

We must learn to regard people less in the light of what they do or omit to do, and more in the light of what they suffer.

To understand reality is not the same as to know about outward events. It is to perceive the essential nature of things. The best-informed man is not necessarily the wisest. Indeed there is a danger that precisely in the multiplicity of his knowledge he will lose sight of what is essential. But on the other hand, knowledge of an apparently trivial detail quite often makes it possible to see into the depths of things. And so the wise man will seek to acquire the best possible knowledge about events, but always without becoming dependent upon this knowledge. To recognize the significant in the factual is wisdom.

(Dietrich Bonhoeffer (1906-1945) – ‘Ethics As Formation’, Ethics)

Les lois sont dangereuses quand elles retardent sur les moeurs. Elles le sont davantage lorsqu’elles se mêlent de les précéder. 

(Marguerite Yourcenar, Mémoires d’Hadrien)

The idea that some lives matter less is the root of all that is wrong with the world.

(Paul Farmer)

We do not inherit the earth from our ancestors; we borrow it from our children.

(prob. Native American saying)

No middle road

If you're going to try, go all the way. Otherwise, don't even start. This could mean losing girlfriends, wives, relatives and maybe even your mind. It could mean not eating for three or four days. It could mean freezing on a park bench. It could mean jail. It could mean derision. It could mean mockery--isolation. Isolation is the gift. All the others are a test of your endurance, of how much you really want to do it. And, you'll do it, despite rejection and the worst odds. And it will be better than anything else you can imagine. If you're going to try, go all the way. There is no other feeling like that. You will be alone with the gods, and the nights will flame with fire. You will ride life straight to perfect laughter. It's the only good fight there is.

(Charles Bukowski, Factotum)

I need a room of my own

In solitude we give passionate attention to our lives, to our memories, to the details around us.

(Virginia Woolf)

Heaven be praised for solitude! Let me be alone now. Let me cast and throw away this veil of being. 

(Virginia Woolf, The waves)

Cada lector crea su libro, transformando el acto finito de escribir en el acto infinito de leer.

(Carlos Fuentes, La gran novela Latinoamericana)

We read to know that we're not alone.

(William Nicholson, Shadowlands)

A writer needs three things, experience, observation, and imagination - any two of which, at times any one of which - can supply the lack of the others.

(William Faulkner)