"Things will have to change in order that they remain the same."
The Leopard is a novel by Italian writer Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa, which chronicles the changes in Sicilian life and society during the Risorgimento. Published posthumously in 1958 by Feltrinelli, after two rejections by the leading Italian publishing houses Mondadori and Einaudi, it became the top-selling novel in Italian history and is considered one of the most important novels in modern It
"I belong to an unlucky generation, astride between two worlds and ill-at-ease in both. And what is more, I am completely without illusions. Now, what would the Senate do with me, an inexperienced legislator who lacks the faculty for self-deception, an essential requisite for wanting to guide others. No, I cannot lift a finger in politics. It would be bitten off."
The Leopard"Burt Lancaster - Don Fabrizio Corbera, Prince of Salina"
The Leopard"We were the leopards, the lions, those who take our place will be jackals and sheep, and the whole lot of us - leopards, lions, jackals and sheep - will continue to think ourselves the salt of the earth."
The Leopard"Yes, love, of course! Fire and flames for a year, ashes for thirty. I too know what love is."
The Leopard"It seems Donna Bastiana is a kind of animal. She cant read, write, or tell time. She can barely talk. Shes even incapable of loving her own daughter. Good for bed, and thats all. But what can you expect? You know whose daughter she is? Shes the daughter of one of your peasants from Runci. His name was Peppe Giunta. He was so filthy and savage that everyone called him Peppe Cowshit."
The Leopard"Sleep, my dear Chevalley, eternal sleep, that is what Sicilians want. And they will always resent anyone who tries to awaken them, even to bring them the most wonderful of gifts. And, between ourselves, I doubt very strongly whether this new Kingdom has very many gifts for us in its luggage. All Sicilian expression, even the most violent, is really a wish for death. Our sensuality, wish for oblivion. Our knifings and shootings, a hankering after extinction. Our laziness, our spiced and drugged sherbets, a desire for voluptuous immobility, that is... for death again."
The Leopard