“If you wish to discover the guilty person, first find out to whom the crime might be useful.”

No, I slept as I always do when I am bored and have not the courage to amuse myself, or when I am hungry and have not the desire to eat.

Love is the most selfish of all the passions.

Life is a storm, my young friend. You will bask in the sunlight one moment, be shattered on the rocks the next. What makes you a man is what you do when that storm comes.

It is almost as difficult to keep a first class person in a fourth class job, as it is to keep a fourth class person in a first class job.

Order is the key to all problems.

Be kind. Aim for my heart.

In politics, my dear fellow, you know, as well as I do, there are no men, but ideas – no feelings, but interests; in politics we do not kill a man, we only remove an obstacle, that is all.

He’s right: They have to put madmen with madmen.

Never fear quarrels, but seek hazardous adventures.

Hatred is blind; rage carries you away; and he who pours out vengeance runs the risk of tasting a bitter draught.

A person who doubts himself is like a man who would enlist in the ranks of his enemies and bear arms against himself.

What a fool I was, not to tear my heart out on the day when I resolved to revenge myself!

We must never expect discretion in first love: it is accompanied by such excessive joy that unless the joy is allowed to overflow, it will choke you.

I came to Paris with four écus in my pocket, and I’d have fought with anybody who told me I was in no condition to buy the Louvre.

Unfortunates, who ought to begin with God, do not have any hope in him till they have exhausted all other means of deliverance.

Mastery of language affords one remarkable opportunities.

If you wish to see the thousand years, look at today; if you wish to understand the millionfold, then look at the one or the two.

You wanted to look at life for yourself – but you were not allowed; you were punished for your wish.

It seems to me we can never give up longing and wishing while we are thoroughly alive. There are certain things we feel to be beautiful and good, and we must hunger after them.

“What if I’m tired when I get home? What if I don’t fill my days with frenetic activity?” “But one day you might wish you had.”

Our program is simple: we wish to govern Italy. They ask us for programs but there are already too many. It is not programs that are wanting for the salvation of Italy but men and will power.

I wish that one of my children will be like the Australian guy from the Discovery Channel show. The crocodile hunter.

Poetry has been to me its own exceeding great reward; it has given me the habit of wishing to discover the good and beautiful in all that meets and surrounds me.

At this point we find ourselves confronted by a very disquieting question: Do we really wish to act upon our knowledge?