Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa Quotes

11 Sourced Quotes

If we want things to stay as they are, things will have to change.

Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa
We were the Leopards, the Lions; those who'll take our place will be little jackals, hyenas; and the whole lot of us, Leopards, jackals, and sheep, we'll all go on thinking ourselves the salt of the earth.

Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa
The young feel sorrows much more sharply that the old; the latter are nearer the safety exit.

Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa
When a peasant gives me his bit of cheese he's making me a bigger present than the Prince of Làscari when he invites me to dinner. That's obvious. The difficulty is that the cheese is nauseating. So all that remains is the heart's gratitude which can't be seen and the nose wrinkled in disgust which can be seen only too well.

Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa
If we want everything to remain as it is, it will be necessary for everything to change.

Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa
Love. Of course, love. Flames for a year, ashes for thirty.

Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa
The Sicilians never want to improve for the simple reason that they think themselves perfect.

Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa
What would the Senate do with me, an inexperienced legislator who lacks the faculty of self-deception, essential requisite for anyone wanting to guide others.

Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa
To rage and mock is gentlemanly, to grumble and whine is not.

Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa
A house of which one knew every room wasn't worth living in.

Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa
As always the thought of his own death calmed him as much as that of others disturbed him: was it perhaps because, when all was said and done, his own death would in the first place mean that of the whole world?

Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa