"oftentimes prison writing is described as that which is produced in prison or by prisoners, and certainly Gramsci's prison notebooks provide the most interesting example."

Antonio Gramsci Philosophy See all quotes by Antonio Gramsci →

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“The old world is dying, and the new world struggles to be born: now is the time of monsters.”

“The long march through the institutions.”

“To tell the truth is revolutionary.”

“Che cosa è la massoneria? Voi avete fatto molte parole sul suo significato spirituale, sulle correnti ideologiche che essa rappresenta; ma tutte queste sono forme di espressione di cui voi vi servite solo per ingannarvi reciprocamente, sapendo di farlo. [...] la massoneria è stato l'unico partito reale ed efficiente che la classe borghese ha avuto per lungo tempo. [...] L'onorevole Martire ha oggi dichiarato che finalmente è stata raggiunta, alle spese della Massoneria, l'Unità Spirituale della Nazione Italiana. Poiché la Massoneria in Italia ha rappresentato l'ideologia e l'organizzazione reale della classe borghese capitalistica, chi è contro la Massoneria è contro il liberalismo, è contro la tradizione politica della borghesia italiana. [...] In realtà il fascismo lotta contro la sola forza organizzata efficiente che la borghesia capitalistica avesse in Italia, [...]. (La legge sulle associazioni segrete).”

“Every social stratum has its own "common sense" which is ultimately the most widespread conception of life and morals. Every philosophical current leaves a sedimentation of "common sense": this is the document of its historical reality. Common sense is not something rigid and static; rather, it changes continuously, enriched by scientific notions and philosophical opinions which have entered common usage. "Common sense" is the folklore of philosophy and stands midway between "folklore" proper (that is, as it is understood) and the philosophy, the science, the economics of the scholars. "Common sense" creates the folklore of the future, that is a more or less rigidified phase of popular knowledge a certain time and place.”

“Revolutionaries see history as a creation of their own spirit, as being made up of a continuous series of violent tugs at the other forces of society - both active and passive, and they prepare the maximum of favourable conditions for the definitive tug (revolution).”

Resonant Thoughts

"The National General Assembly of the Cuban people condemns large scale landowning as a source of poverty for the peasant and a backward and inhuman system of agricultural production; it condemns starv…"

— Fidel Castro

Politics1926–2016

#education

"The total subject of mathematics is clearly too broad for any one of us. I do not think that any mathematician since Gauss has covered it fully and uniformly, even Hilbert did not, and all of us are o…"

— John von Neumann

Science1903–1957

#philosophy

"There are here two assumptions about 'evaluations ', which I will call assumption and assumption . Assumption is that some individual may, without logical error, base his beliefs about matters of valu…"

— Philippa Foot

Philosophy1920–2010

#philosophy

"The effect therefore on national wealth of those classes of unproductive consumers which are supported by taxation, must be very various in different countries, and must depend entirely upon the power…"

— Thomas Robert Malthus

Politics1766–1834

#power