Ignazio Silone Quotations

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.

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

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

Destiny is the invention of the cowardly, and the resigned.

On a group of theories one can found a school; but on a group of values one can found a culture, a civilization, a new way of living together among men.

A wrong war brings wrong; so does a right war.

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.

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.

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

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

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

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.

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

An earthquake achieves what the law promises but does not in practice maintain - the equality of all men.