Kingdom of Italy

Antonio Gramsci

Philosophy

Marxist humanism

1891–1937

"To tell the truth, to arrive together at the truth, is a communist and revolutionary act."

Benito Mussolini

Politics

fascism

1883–1945

"For my part I prefer fifty thousand rifles to five million votes."

Cesare Pavese

Literature

1908–1950

"Not believing in anything is also a religion."

Umberto Boccioni

Art

Futurism

1882–1916

"While the impressionists make a table to give one particular moment and subordinate the life of the table to its resemblance to this moment, we synthesize every moment and thus build the table."

Aldo Capitini

Philosophy

1899–1968

"“Always implicit in religion is thus a confession of finiteness and limitation. We experience this limitation when we weep, our lament arising from our inability to love fully."

Giorgio Morandi

Art

Futurism

1890–1964

"... to touch the core, the essence of things. Even in as simple a subject, a great painter can achieve a majesty of vision and an intensity of feeling to which we immediately respond."

Luigi Pirandello

Literature

1867–1936

"Woe to him who doesn't know how to wear his mask, be he king or pope!"

Gino Severini

Art

Futurism

1883–1966

"I found in your book the confirmation of my ultimate conclusions and the tools for deepening this aspect of the artistic problem."

Ugo Cavallero

Military

1880–1943

"I am very much afraid that the loss of Cyrenaica will have serious political consequences for the Duce."

Alfredo Rocco

Politics

1875–1935

"The nation that refuses to behave nationalistically, when all the other nations are doing so, is fatally destined to die."

Ferruccio Busoni

Music

1866–1924

"Compared with this art, Schoenberg’s Pierrot lunaire is lukewarm lemonade."

Bartolomeo Vanzetti

1888–1927

"American Writers and the Sacco-Vanzetti Case" by Carol Vanderveer"

Indro Montanelli

Journalism

1909–2001

"A real writer doesn't look up to any other writer but himself."

Filippo Tommaso Marinetti

Literature

Futurism

1876–1944

"Let the divine reign of Electric Light finally commence, liberating Venice from its venal moonlight of furnished rooms"

Cesare Lombroso

Medicine

1835–1909

"Klopstock was questioned regarding the meaningof a passage in his poem. He replied, "God and I both knew what it meant once; now God alone knows."

Errico Malatesta

Journalism

1853–1932

"We follow ideas and not men, and rebel against this habit of embodying a principle in a man."

Giuseppe Peano

Literature

1858–1932

"Peano Curve at The Internet Encyclopedia of Science"

Bruno Filippi

Social Activism

1900–1919

"I envy the savages. And I will cry to them in a loud voice: “Save yourselves, civilization is coming."

Amedeo Modigliani

Art

modern art

1884–1920

"The function of art is to struggle against obligation."

Achille Starace

Music

1889–1945

"It is absurd to believe in the possibility of perpetual peace...Fascist education must be education for battle. Fascism believes in sanctity and heroism."

Alessandro Pavolini

Politics

1903–1945

"Only the Duce must give them orders, have you forgotten that? You have forgotten finally too much. How disgusting."

Guglielmo Marconi

Science

1874–1937

"Have I done the world good, or have I added a menace?"

Arrigo Boito

Music

Scapigliatura

1842–1918

"When I saw you I fell in love, and you smiled because you knew."

Vito Volterra

Mathematics

1860–1940

"I did not hesitate at the Congress of Mathematicians at Paris to call the nineteenth century the century of the theory of functions, as the eighteenth century might have been called that of infinitesimal calculus."

Percy Bysshe Shelley

Literature

Romanticism

1792–1822

"If it be proved that the world is ruled by a Divine Power, no inference necessarily can be drawn from that circumstance in favour of a future state."