“I hate and detest Sicily in so far as I love it, and in so far as it does not respond to the kind of love I would like to have for it.”

“Maybe the whole of italy is becoming a sort of Sicily.”

“Scientists say that the palm tree line, that is the climate suitable to growth of the palm, is moving north, five hundred metres, I think it was, every year...The palm tree line...I call it the coffee line, the strong black coffee line...It's rising like mercury in a thermometer, this palm tree line, this strong coffee line, this scandal line, rising up throughout Italy and already passed Rome...”

“One has no right to love or hate anything if one has not acquired a thorough knowledge of its nature. Great love springs from great knowledge of the beloved object, and if you know it but little you will be able to love it only a little or not at all.”

“Hate is by far the greatest pleasure; men love in haste, but detest in leisure. ”

“Nothing can be loved or hated unless it is first understood.”

“Iron rusts from disuse, stagnant water loses its purity, and in cold weather becomes frozen; even so does inaction sap the vigors of the mind.”