Famous quotes
Quotes by famous people, credited to who said them. Your own quotes must not match any of these. More are added all the time. 1,158,269 quotes Who coined it · How we decide
EnglishItalianoPolskiעבריתFrançaisPortuguêsفارسیEspañol中文РусскийDeutschالعربيةहिन्दी日本語ΕλληνικάLatina
Manlio Sgalambro
62 quotes
“And so he became a writer. Well done. Every now and then he will come back for holidays, perhaps to see his family, and he will criticize us fiercely because he lives in civilization. But there is one thing he does not know, that this land, like the Ionia of Heraclitus and Anaxagoras, is magical, and always calls back those who belong to it, as if exercising a right. The law of belonging. And even for him, one day the return will be inevitable. It will be the climate, the light, the air... An almond granita!”
Manlio Sgalambro (1924–2014) first seen 2003 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Quoted in the film ‘’Perduto amor‘’ (2003).
“The mafia itself does not bring anything to mind. Like the homeland, the dead of Solferino. Ancient things. [...] Sciascia was a civil writer, a schoolteacher who wanted to teach us good social manners. But revisiting him today is like rereading Silvio Pellico. His function has been exhausted. We no longer need Sciascia. We need a new reflection, another Sicilian consciousness.”
Manlio Sgalambro (1924–2014) first seen 2005 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: From an interview by Francesco Battistini, ‘'Sgalambro: Sciascia addio, non servi più’' (Sgalambro: Farewell Sciascia, we no longer need you), ‘'Corriere della Sera’', February 11, 2005, p. 33.
“Hegel called it spirit, we call it culture. Culture is a negative definition, a jumble of things, made for the most varied purposes, not to provide us with a concept of spirit. Ernst Cassirer wrote “For a Philosophy of Culture,” but it was a masked, reduced, debased philosophy of spirit.”
Manlio Sgalambro (1924–2014) first seen 2013 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: From an interview by Francesco Iannello, GAP, RAI Educational, 2013. Quoted in RAI Cultura
“It bothers me when people speak ill of Sicily, but they speak ill of it because their judgment is not based on fact, it is poorly motivated, it is rather something unrequited, a resentment.”
Manlio Sgalambro (1924–2014) first seen 2014 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Quoted in ‘’Farewell to Sgalambro, philosopher and poet of Sicilian pessimism‘’, ‘'EuropaQuotidiano.it’', March 6, 2014.
“I am me and Sicily. I cannot ignore or exclude it, I would be guilty of a poorly constructed abstraction.”
Manlio Sgalambro (1924–2014) first seen 2014 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Quoted in ‘’Farewell to Sgalambro, philosopher and poet of Sicilian pessimism‘’, ‘'EuropaQuotidiano.it’', March 6, 2014.
“True life is the life of the mind.”
Manlio Sgalambro (1924–2014) first seen 2014 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: From an interview with ‘'Freetime’' on January 13, 2014. As quoted in Concetta Bonini, “Manlio Sgalambro, the last interview”, in “Panorama,” March 6, 2014.
“I got everything I wanted out of life, now everything that contradicted me or my way of thinking, for example my family, has disappeared: I have been living alone for years.”
Manlio Sgalambro (1924–2014) first seen 2014 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: From an interview with ‘'Freetime’' on January 13, 2014. As quoted in Concetta Bonini, “Manlio Sgalambro, the last interview”, in “Panorama,” March 6, 2014.
“The singer must convince others of his ideas. Unlike the philosopher, however, he can do so without arguments.”
Manlio Sgalambro (1924–2014) said by 2014 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I am not an intellectual, I am a cleric. An intellectual is someone who takes sides with extremely political values. A cleric, on the other hand, is someone who strives to follow values that are universal.”
Manlio Sgalambro (1924–2014) first seen 2004 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: From an interview with Rita Fulco in 2004. As quoted in ‘’Manlio Sgalambro. L'ultimo chierico Un libro intervista di Rita Fulco‘’, ‘'RAI Cultura’'.
“That there is nothing worse than the world does not need to be proven.”
Manlio Sgalambro (1924–2014) said by 2014 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Pessimistic discourse belongs to the genre of oratory, because it presupposes an audience that can shout and get excited.”
Manlio Sgalambro (1924–2014) said by 2014 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The best is nothing more than reality as it is. This was Hegel's pessimism.”
Manlio Sgalambro (1924–2014) said by 2014 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The art of philosophizing comes to light thanks to the mimetic behavior of those who practice it.”
Manlio Sgalambro (1924–2014) said by 2014 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Discos are little nirvanas where the solemn roar of rock music allows the son of Siddhartha to savor the little nothingness. To not be for a little while is all that is asked. Little ‘nothings’ that the life of today's individual needs in order to be reborn and live another week.”
Manlio Sgalambro (1924–2014) said by 2014 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“In ‘industrial’ music, the irreversibility of time is immanent. It is entropic music, music that destroys itself. Pop music is the epitome of the self-dissolution of music. And yet it is the only form of music that makes sense to everyone. On the edge of the abyss, Mahler composes ‘The Song of the Earth’ but hums a Neapolitan song.”
Manlio Sgalambro (1924–2014) said by 2014 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Someone said that only God could have written the ‘Ethica’. Believe me, he was wrong. Not even God. In fact, the impossibility of the Ethica being written is nothing other than the impossibility of the world being created, which the Ethica demonstrates perfectly. (p. 100)”
Manlio Sgalambro (1924–2014) said by 2014 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“As Spinoza gradually got rid of himself, the ‘’Ethica‘’ was born. This is the opposite of being its author. In order to write the ‘'Ethica’', he had to cease to exist. To be more precise, we should say that a certain Baruch Spinoza, who did not exist, wrote the ‘'Ethica’'. (p. 101)”
Manlio Sgalambro (1924–2014) said by 2014 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“You agree, however, that when everyone begins: Baruch Spinoza was born here or there, on such and such a day and year, and only then do they talk about the ‘’Ethica‘’, you agree, admit it, that these are only rumors. If anything, we should start with his death, or when it began, and work backwards. We should say how it was that this man began to disappear on a given day. (p. 101)”
Manlio Sgalambro (1924–2014) said by 2014 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“It is this unchanging world within a changing society that philosophy, without excessive amazement, must reflect.”
Manlio Sgalambro (1924–2014) said by 2014 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The beautiful lies in the very moment when one senses that beauty is no longer. Forever now, perhaps.”
Manlio Sgalambro (1924–2014) said by 2014 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The truth, the task of those who deal with philosophy, is not the dialogue between two people who philosophize, but a silent nod that is addressed to the designated victim.”
Manlio Sgalambro (1924–2014) said by 2014 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“One cannot be reactionary because there is nowhere to return to; one cannot be progressive because there is nowhere to go.”
Manlio Sgalambro (1924–2014) said by 2014 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Theology is not the science of salvation, but of perdition.”
Manlio Sgalambro (1924–2014) said by 2014 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Natural theology, as a “natural disposition,” belongs to blind spontaneity, to brute human nature. But at the same time, it reminds us that here there is only the lowest being. The same thing implies the blind formality of the disjunctive syllogism which, if we want to tell it like it is, leads us obtusely to conceive the outrageous idea of God. With this impiety, natural theology begins and ends.”
Manlio Sgalambro (1924–2014) said by 2014 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“We know the ‘reductio’ of all things in God by another name. In those who die, the infernal force, or, let's put it this way, the dear old essence of the world, is revealed ‘eo ipso’.”
Manlio Sgalambro (1924–2014) said by 2014 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“One's own cognitive destiny (not the ‘letter on the subject’) leads far away. Asking a question and reading a book—what could be more foolish?”
Manlio Sgalambro (1924–2014) said by 2014 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“We drag ourselves through the streets at night and talk to ourselves. Dialogue flourishes during the day and echoes with its ignoble dealings. At night, we monologue. Like kings.”
Manlio Sgalambro (1924–2014) said by 2014 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“What is different about beauty is its destructive effect. The joyful tension of a poem bursts your poor heart, if it enters you. You are the victim who devoutly welcomes the sharp knife with which beauty sacrifices you. No one must be where beauty is, it seems to say, and with a disdainful gesture it turns its back on you. Those who see the face of beauty die, yes, but not in despair.”
Manlio Sgalambro (1924–2014) said by 2014 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“How can we still bear to call ourselves living—we who are dying!”
Manlio Sgalambro (1924–2014) said by 2014 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The first comer who wants to have his say boasts the right to independent thought, which he has been educated to believe in. Let him speak: he will hang himself.”
Manlio Sgalambro (1924–2014) said by 2014 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Modesty is the vile success of those who annul themselves, but only a little, and in this way stand out.”
Manlio Sgalambro (1924–2014) said by 2014 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“If Karl Kraus had written ‘'Capital’', he would have done so in three lines.”
Manlio Sgalambro (1924–2014) said by 2014 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“If you steal, they arrest you; if you say that God exists, it's just an opinion. That has always amazed me.”
Manlio Sgalambro (1924–2014) said by 2014 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“We forgive those who have offended us because that evens the score: one offense each. But the latter is deadly.”
Manlio Sgalambro (1924–2014) said by 2014 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“True discipline in matters of the intellect is a ruthless intransigence against the spirit of discussion. Every concession made in the name of mutual equality is a betrayal of the truth, over which courtesy prevails. Thinking divides.”
Manlio Sgalambro (1924–2014) said by 2014 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I equally deplore the triumphalism of Kant and, in general, of those philosophies which, finding it necessary to start from the self, praise it as if it were a great achievement and not the miserable fate that has befallen us.”
Manlio Sgalambro (1924–2014) said by 2014 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The task of theodicy was accomplished at the very moment it disappeared, not because it failed but because it succeeded completely. In the final analysis, it made the very notion of evil disappear.”
Manlio Sgalambro (1924–2014) said by 2014 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“An idea does not seem truly reliable to me unless it also satisfies my senses.”
Manlio Sgalambro (1924–2014) said by 2014 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“A righteous man is one who knows this: that he must annul God daily so that the measure of eternal justice may be fulfilled daily.”
Manlio Sgalambro (1924–2014) said by 2014 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“That ‘I’ should be governed: this is where the scandal of politics begins. Therefore, in examining my aversion to it, I intend to examine the idea in relation to those who make it their profession, and then both in relation to my spirit. It seems obvious when viewed from the outside. But examined in relation to my spirit, or to any spirit, the idea that someone should ‘take care’ of me (this person should in fact be the ‘politician’) never ceases to amaze me. That I should be governed, that is where the scandal lies. My spirit's aversion to this idea is total.”
Manlio Sgalambro (1924–2014) said by 2014 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Politics is the protection of the disabled.”
Manlio Sgalambro (1924–2014) said by 2014 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The politician embodies the average state of a society—its vices, mediocrities, and defects—as if he absorbed its evils in the manner of old sorcerers who suck the pus from a wound, sucking out the evil spell as well. Thus, their vices, turpitudes, and malfeasance taste of something different. It is as if they harness all that is vile in coexistence and free others from it.”
Manlio Sgalambro (1924–2014) said by 2014 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Only those who preserve values lose them, and only those who can only subvert them actually preserve them.”
Manlio Sgalambro (1924–2014) said by 2014 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“True, society should save us from the universe that swallows us up. But what saves us from society?”
Manlio Sgalambro (1924–2014) said by 2014 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The means of mass destruction correspond to the grand return of value in place of being.”
Manlio Sgalambro (1924–2014) said by 2014 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“If you still want me to bring out this obscure evidence of mine and shed some light on it, I see, for one thing, the principle of non-contradiction, the categorical imperative, the principles of science, knowledge about our solar system, just enough to face our fate—I mean that of the species. It is this communism that I am referring to.”
Manlio Sgalambro (1924–2014) said by 2014 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Socrates dies because he broke the law. It is foolish to say that he was a gentleman, says Hegel rightly. If a philosopher is someone who pits the individual against the world, we cannot help but feel repugnance, he adds.”
Manlio Sgalambro (1924–2014) said by 2014 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The species is nothing; some men are everything.”
Manlio Sgalambro (1924–2014) said by 2014 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“There is therefore only one age. Or, as we might also say, all other ages are matters of psychology. Only old age is in itself. Only old age requires nothing less than metaphysics to be treated adequately.”
Manlio Sgalambro (1924–2014) said by 2014 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“In the spirit, there are still continents to conquer, discoveries and great journeys.”
Manlio Sgalambro (1924–2014) said by 2014 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source