Italians do not regard food as merely fuel. They regard it as medicine for the soul, one of life's abiding pleasures.

Autobiography is a preemptive strike against biographers.

truth ... is the first casualty of tyranny.

One feels a quickening of the pulse when one crosses a border.

Illness is regarded as a crime, and crime is regarded as illness.

All is waiting and all is work; all is change and all is permanence.

Belief sometimes precedes understanding; faith sometimes precedes scientific evidence.