Italo Svevo

“... je tam také pokus o báseň věnovanou ... mouše. Kdybych nevěděl, jak se věci mají, řekl bych, že ty verše sepsala nějaká ctihodná slečna, která tyká tvorům, o nichž pěje; ale protože jsem ji složil já, nezbývá mi než věřit, že byl-li jsem já schopen něčeho takového, pak už je každý schpen všeho.”

“V jedné jediné maličkosti se s Augustou neshodujeme, a to v názoru, jak zacházet se zlobivými dětmi: já si myslím, že bolest dítěte je méně důležitá než naše a že je lepší způsobit bolest dítěti, jestliže to dospělého ušetří velké mrzutosti, kdežto ona se domnívá, že jsme dítě zplodili, a tak je musíme taky snášet.”

“Health doesn't analyze itself, nor does it look at itself in the mirror. Only we sick people know something about ourselves.”

“L'amore sano è quello che abbraccia una donna sola e intera, compreso il suo carattere e la sua intelligenza.”

“Yoksa ben sigaraya kendi yeteneksizliğimin ayıbını yükleyebilmek için mi öylesine tutkundum? acaba sigara alışkanlığımdan vazgeçsem o umduğum güçlü, üstün adam olur muydum? belki beni tiryakiliğime zincirleyen de o kuşku olmuştur, çünkü insanın kendisini gizli kalmış bir büyük adam sanması rahat bir yaşam biçimidir.”

“... a preached immorality is more to be punished than an immoral action. You arrive at murder through love or through hate; you propagandize murder only through wickedness.”

“It is comfortable to live in the belief that you are great, though your greatness is latent. ”

“Misunderstanding women is a clear sign of scant virility. ”

“You see things less clearly when you open your eyes too wide. ”

“Under the law established by the possessor of the greatest number of devices, sickness and the sick will flourish.”

“The fancies of wine are authentic events.”

“True religion, indeed, is that which does not have to be avowed in order to provide the solace that at times...if only rarely...you cannot do without.”

“Who knows whether, if I had given up smoking, I should really have become the strong perfect man I imagined? Perhaps it was this very doubt that bound me to my vice, because life is so much pleasanter if one is able to believe in one's own latent greatness”