Guido Piovene

"Mention has been made of the Genoese cult of the dead, which sometimes reveals a grandiose concept of class. A visit to Staglieno, the most famous cemetery in Italy, shows how that concept was handed down from the aristocracy to the philanthropic bourgeoisie. Not even the Monumental Cemetery of Milan offers such an anthology of self-celebrations through the tomb. Here you see the financier in a white marble waistcoat, taking leave of his weeping wife; but he takes his leave in a palace; And to die is to go beyond a brocade curtain with rich folds. Another deceased appears in the guise of an angel pouring a shower of gold coins from a bowl; and another, says the epigraph, "ceased to live but not to benefit – by binding to pious institutes – a non-humble part of his rich census". (pp. 227-228)"

"Our country is inferior to none in the number of minds and in the quality of intelligence at the source. But that intelligence can hardly take on a political value and a political prestige, and seldom emits voices that carry with it a universal interest. In no other country like us does the whole field seem to be occupied by activists of all kinds; Nowhere else, almost by tacit agreement of businessmen and sociologists, is the conviction that only money and food problems matter. (p. 863)"