"Political parties in Italy are so stupid and expensive that they deserve to be abolished."

“The painter who is content with the praise of the world for what does not satisfy himself, is not an artist, but an artisan; for though his reward be only praise, his pay is that of a mechanic.”

“The philanthropic tradition is older than democracy, older than Christianity, and older than higher education. It gives form and purpose to personal and social life that cannot be provided by the self-interest of economic enterprise or required by the mandate of political institutions.”

“I cannot prevent anyone from getting angry, or mad, or frustrated. I can only hope that they'll turn that anger and frustration and madness into something positive, so that two, three, four, five hundred will step forward, so the gay doctors will come out, the gay lawyers, the gay judges, gay bankers, gay architects I hope that every professional gay will say 'enough', come forward and tell everybody, wear a sign, let the world know. Maybe that will help.”

“The weaker the man in authority... the stronger his insistence that all his privileges be acknowledged.”

“Where there is mystery, it is generally suspected there must also be evil.”

“Thrift: a way to spend money without having the least little bit of pleasure from it.”

“Whenever we make changes in our surroundings, we can too easily shortchange ourselves, by cutting ourselves off from some of the sights and sounds, the shapes or textures, or other information from a place that have helped mold our understanding and are now necessary for us to thrive. Overdevelopment and urban sprawl can damage our own lives as much as they damage our cities and countryside.”

Source : Tony Hiss (2010). “The Experience of Place: A New Way of Looking at and Dealing With our Radically Changing Cities and Count ryside”, p.12, Vintage

“Where pride begins, love ceases.”