Fausto Cercignani

If you talk to the shadows, when dusk comes on.

— Fausto Cercignani

They do not speak of boundless skies, on hazy moors of muffled music.

— Fausto Cercignani

The essence of my optimism is constructive pessimism.

— Fausto Cercignani

Never forget what you would rather forget!

— Fausto Cercignani

We learn a lot from the mistakes of others, but even more from our own.

— Fausto Cercignani

When one must fight, one had better do it without hesitation, according to his own nature.

— Fausto Cercignani

Personal dignity is to be measured with the yardstick of one’s conscience, not with that of other people’s judgement.

— Fausto Cercignani

Every human relationship implies compromises, but the limit to any compromise is one’s own dignity.

— Fausto Cercignani

Inner freedom demands the rejection of any imposition that injures our dignity.

— Fausto Cercignani

Perfection is the dream of imperfection that refuses to wake up.

— Fausto Cercignani

If you have never had a dream, perhaps you have only dreamt to be alive.

— Fausto Cercignani

Perhaps it is true that the trials of life always teach us something, but it is undeniable that we are not always so eager to learn.

— Fausto Cercignani

They say there is a difference between actual temperature and perceived temperature, but in the “bearable heaviness of being” the actual measure is no doubt the weight we perceive.

— Fausto Cercignani

Sometimes true tolerance requires an extraordinary strength, which we are often too weak to exercise.

— Fausto Cercignani

Once I believed that sooner or later I would come across a really wise person; today I couldn’t even say what wisdom is.

— Fausto Cercignani

As long as his strength permits, the poor mortal must always climb new mountains.

— Fausto Cercignani

If use becomes abuse, we should intervene at once, for if abuse becomes habit, then there is no remedy.

— Fausto Cercignani

If you despise habits so much, it is because you do not realize that nobody can do without them.

— Fausto Cercignani

The origin of certain superstitions is often connected to the intention of attributing adverse events to specific causes.

— Fausto Cercignani

Unlike money, hope is all: for the rich as well as for the poor.

— Fausto Cercignani

Calumny can injure you only if you reflect yourself in others and not in your conscience.

— Fausto Cercignani

If you are living in the past or in the future, you will never find a meaning in the present.

— Fausto Cercignani

Your will cannot always choose the path; very often the route is determined by chance or by the will of others.

— Fausto Cercignani

Perhaps it is not true that “a man becomes what he dreams”; but if he does not dream, what kind of a man is he?

— Fausto Cercignani

Wishing to dare serves no purpose at all, if it remains a wish.

— Fausto Cercignani

A secret remains a secret until you make someone promise never to reveal it.

— Fausto Cercignani

Secret thoughts are only half free: they fly undisturbed in the skies of the inner freedom, but they can never leave them.

— Fausto Cercignani

It is certainly a good thing always to forgive with generosity, but it is no doubt just never to forget the wrongs received; they belong to the route that leads to inner maturity.

— Fausto Cercignani

Even good arguments fail, if they are spiced with digressions.

— Fausto Cercignani

The best speeches are those that hurt your mind, not your ear.

— Fausto Cercignani

Emulation can be positive, if you succeed in avoiding imitation.

— Fausto Cercignani

Do not confuse fantasy with imagination: the former consumes itself in daydreaming, the latter stimulates creativity in the arts and in the sciences.

— Fausto Cercignani

An exception is nothing else than a rule that applies exceptionally.

— Fausto Cercignani

The loafer believes he is enjoying life, but sooner or later he must face disillusion.

— Fausto Cercignani

The thesis that the human being seeks God because of the disorder he perceives in himself does not take into account that the human being seems to prefer disorder.

— Fausto Cercignani

When you would suffocate or ignore dissent, remember how many times you dissented.

— Fausto Cercignani

Refuse all excess, except in youthful enthusiasm.

— Fausto Cercignani

Your identity is like your shadow: not always visible and yet always present.

— Fausto Cercignani

If some speak ill of me, I will try to understand their reasons, but after my death I will certainly come to terms with it.

— Fausto Cercignani

No form and no degree of alleged liberty can justify calumny or the publication of calumnious material.

— Fausto Cercignani

If the unconscious is an abyss, how could Sigmund Freud get out of it?

— Fausto Cercignani

Perhaps it is true that every human being is a potential monster, but if we disregard potentialities, then humankind can be divided into two main categories: human beings and human beasts.

— Fausto Cercignani

Sometimes one would almost like to say: what really matters is only the mind. But where can you find a mind without a body?

— Fausto Cercignani

Order is a necessity for everyone, but not everyone understands it in the same way.

— Fausto Cercignani

Unity of intent is on the lips of many, but in the hearts of few.

— Fausto Cercignani

Stellar wars are a sort of parallel reality in the filmic imagination, terrestrial wars are still today a harsh daily reality.

— Fausto Cercignani

The best therapy for the imaginary invalid is very simple, but rarely applied. The subject should be taken to a place where people must bear atrocious sufferings and the loss of all human dignity.

— Fausto Cercignani

Sometimes moderation is a bad counselor.

— Fausto Cercignani

If you have no aim, you need not worry about the means.

— Fausto Cercignani

Self-discipline is indispensable, if you want to master your character.

— Fausto Cercignani

Courtesy is fundamental: sometimes it keeps at bay even snarling people.

— Fausto Cercignani

If you look incessantly for variety, sooner or later you will discover that you need more wisdom.

— Fausto Cercignani

Genuine living and mere vegetating have only breathing in common (and a few other things).

— Fausto Cercignani

If sudden, the visit of the Grim Reaper cannot be unwelcome.

— Fausto Cercignani

If you refuse to take account of theory, then you have forgotten that practice is often an offspring of theory.

— Fausto Cercignani

You should only boast about having nothing to boast about!

— Fausto Cercignani

The present is nothing else than the sum of what one perceives, remembers and hopes for.

— Fausto Cercignani

If you persevere in your rancor, you do nothing but keep feeding yourself on poison.

— Fausto Cercignani

“Love the others and you will be loved!” is a saying that might sound as a terrible and unjust accusation against all the innocents that have been hated and perhaps even tortured and killed.

— Fausto Cercignani

If I lost the privilege of being despised by certain individuals, I would certainly suspect that my actions and words are wrong in some way.

— Fausto Cercignani

If on the web you search only for frivolous or sensational news (which are often false and slanderous), you will bring grist to the mill of those who maintain that the era of the web is by no means the “era of knowledge”.

— Fausto Cercignani

A negative answer may sometimes annoy, but an ambiguous reaction with “yes and no” (or even “nyes”) may be much more irritating.

— Fausto Cercignani

Titles are like clothes: they do not make the man.

— Fausto Cercignani

Some people maintain that what one believes becomes true, but the poor sick person who has hoped in vain would certainly not agree.

— Fausto Cercignani

Scientists may well explain the origin of the universe, but they will never be able to explain the origin of the primordial elements from which the universe is said to have developed.

— Fausto Cercignani

All music is music, but it is sublime only when it laughs and cries in every note.

— Fausto Cercignani