Two cliches make us laugh. A hundred cliches move us. For we sense dimly that the cliches are talking among themselves, and celebrating a reunion.

Whenever a poet or preacher, chief or wizard spouts gibberish, the human race spends centuries deciphering the message.

I consider always the adult life to be the continuous retrieval of childhood.

Whoever reflects on four things I would be better if he were never born: that which is above, that which is below, that which is before, that which is after.

Media populism means appealing to people directly through media. A politician who can master the media can shape political affairs outside of parliament and even eliminate the mediation of parliament.

Socrates ... did not write. It seems academically obvious that he perished because he did not publish!

But Italy is not an intellectual country. On the subway in Tokyo everybody reads. In Italy, they don't. Don't evaluate Italy from the fact that it produced Raphael and Michelangelo.