Being moderate with oneself and generous with others; this is what is meant by having a just relationship with money, by being free as far as money is concerned.

I begin to suspect that England is the most melancholy country in the world.

You aren't ill: it is just that you are made of second-rate materials

Italy is a country which is willing to submit itself to the worst governments. It is, as we know, a country ruled by disorder, cynicism, incompetence and confusion. Nevertheless we are aware of intelligence circulating in the streets like a vivid bloodstream.

And we are a people without tears. The things that moved our parents do not move us at all.

But the English do not know what surprise is. No one ever turns his head to look at anyone else in the street.

As far as the education of children is concerned I think they should be taught not the little virtues but the great ones. Not thrift but generosity and an indifference to money; not caution but courage and a contempt for danger; not shrewdness but frankness and a love of truth; not tact but love for one's neighbor and self-denial; not a desire for success but a desire to be and to know.