Ignazio Silone Quotes & Sayings

How pitiful is an intelligence used only to make excuses to quieten the conscience. — Ignazio Silone

Liberty isn't a thing you are given as a present. You can be a free man under a dictatorship. It is sufficient if you struggle against it. — Ignazio Silone

Destiny is the invention of the cowardly, and the resigned. — Ignazio Silone

The State always stands for swindling, intrigue, and privilege, and cannot stand for anything else. — Ignazio Silone

The final conflict will be between the Communists and the ex-Communists. — Ignazio Silone

But you can live in the most democratic country on earth, and if you're lazy, obtuse or servile within yourself, you're not free. — Ignazio Silone

No one can ever write about anything that happened to him after he was twelve years old. — Ignazio Silone

Liberty is the possibility of doubting, the possibility of making a mistake, the possibility of searching and experimenting, the possibility of saying no to any authority - literary, artistic, philosophic, religious, social, and even political. — Ignazio Silone

Sometimes I'm haunted by the thought that we only have one life and we live it provisionally, waiting in vain for the day that our real life will begin. And so life passes by. — Ignazio Silone

On a group of theories one can found a school; but on a group of values one can found a culture. — Ignazio Silone

I would willingly pass my life writing and re-writing the same book - that one book every writer carries within him - the image of his own soul. — Ignazio Silone

In the countryside, secrets have a short lifespan — Ignazio Silone

Fascism was a counter-revolution against a revolution that never took place. — Ignazio Silone

To grow up requires a whole life but to become old one night is enough. — Ignazio Silone

A wrong war brings wrong; so does a right war. — Ignazio Silone

Spiritual life and secure life do not go together; to save oneself on must struggle and take risks. — Ignazio Silone