Category: Citazione del Giorno

“Myth is the hidden part of every story, the buried part, the region that is still unexplored because there are as yet no words to enable us to get there. . . . Myth is nourished by silence as well as by words.”

— Italo Calvino (1923 – 1985)

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“When I first saw a Fellini movie, I came out of the movie theatre and decided to become a lawyer!   I thought to myself, it’s impossible to make something so beautiful!”

— Roberto Benigni (born 1952)

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“Think with the learned and speak with the vulgar.”

— Agostino Nifo (1473 – 1538)

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“An object in possession seldom retains the same charm that it had in pursuit.”

— Gaius Plinius Caecilius Secundus [Pliny the Younger] (61 – 112)

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“Sing, my tongue, of the battle in the glorious struggle.”

— St. Venantius Honorius Clementianus Fortunatus (c.530–c.600/609)

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“A tavola non si invecchia.”

English:  “A table is not aging.”

Idiomatic:  “You don’t age while seated for a meal.”

— Italian proverb

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“If you haven’t cried, your eyes can’t be beautiful.”

— Sophia Loren (born 1934)

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“Nelle botti piccine ci sta il vino buono.”

English: “In the small barrels you find the good wine.”

Idiomatic: “Good things come in small packages.”

— Italian proverb

“Musical consonance occurs in the element which is the mean of all (i.e. air), and reaches the ears through motion, spherical motion: so that it is not surprising that it should be fitting to the soul, which is both the mean of things, and the origin of circular motion.  In addition, musical sound, more than anything else perceived by the senses, conveys, as if animated, the emotions and thoughts of the singer’s or player’s soul to the listeners’ souls; thus it preeminently corresponds with the soul.  Moreover, as regards sight, although visual impressions are in a way pure, yet they lack the effectiveness of motion, and are usually perceived only as an image, without reality; normally therefore, they move the soul only slightly.  Smell, taste, and touch are entirely material, and rather titillate the sense-organs than penetrate the depths of the soul.  But musical sound by the movement of the air moves the body: by purified air it excites the aerial spirit which is the bond of body and soul: by emotion it affects the senses, and at the same time the soul: by meaning it works on the mind: finally, by the very movement of the subtle air it penetrates strongly: by its contemperation it flows smoothly: by the convormity of its quality it floods us with a wonderful pleasure: by its nature, both spiritual and material, it at once seizes, and claims as its own, man in his entirety.”

— Marsilio Ficino (1433 – 1499)

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“Where you are is of no moment, but only what you are doing there.  It is not the place that ennobles you, but you the place; and this only by doing that which is great and noble.”

— Francesco Petrarch (1304 – 1374)

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