Top 88 Italians Quotes

In the Bronx, you have the southern Italians; in Queens, the Greeks, Koreans and Chinese; in Brooklyn, the Jewish community; and in Harlem, the Hispanics – all with their own markets.

The idea of ‘ferie,’ or summer break, is a long tradition of which all Italians, including myself, participate. It’s a time to relax, reflect and recharge.

We always have to remember that we, the Italians, have always cooperated with the U.S., and with Reagan and Carter and Nixon and Clinton, Bush and Obama. And Trump, Trump is the American-elected president. So, cooperation is there.

The power which the Hellenes and even the Italians possessed, of civilizing and assimilating to themselves the nations susceptible of culture with whom they came into contact, was wholly wanting in the Phoenicians.

Second-generation Hispanics marry non-Hispanics at a higher rate than second-generation Irish or Italians. Second-generation Hispanics’ English language capability rates are higher than previous immigrant groups’.

Italians are great improvisers. If something unforeseen happens, they throw up their hands, and they adjust.

I get on well with Italians. Which makes things easier when I meet, for example, my future mechanics at Ferrari.

Do we have to give Mr Sarkozy a history lesson? Yes, there are Gauls among our ancestors. But there are also Romans, Normans, Celts, Nicois, Corsicans, Arabs, Italians, Spanish. That’s France.

It’s in the nature of Italians to live life with a positive tone and to celebrate the invitations that come along in life. Italian food is so conducive to all of that.

I think that we must come together progressively, with the British, the Germans, the Spanish, the Italians and with the new members of the European Union, we must make an effort to forge closer links.

I have been further enlightened by the conversation and correspondence of some illustrious Italians, whom I would gladly name, were I not afraid of exposing them to danger.

Italians work hard physically and tactically.

The Greeks, the Italians, and the Indians, from whom we get our ideas, erect monuments to ideas; we erect ours to men, and of such monuments we have an oversupply.

All Italians got a refrigerator in the garage. That’s what we do.

The Italians are not indulgent, as Americans are. They don’t have the patience to teach young singers how to move. They think you should learn in school.

The Irish fought the Italians until they started marrying them. And then they both fought the Jews until they started marrying them.

Rome has New York’s formlessness, aimlessness, a kind of hard-boiled sophistication, blase about everything. In their filmmaking, too, the Italians have this tongue-in-cheek sense of comedy.

The Italians – they cannot talk without shaking the hands. And I am like that, I’m from Brazil as well.

Take care, these Italians, full of failings, are neither you, nor me; they are your neighbors, the ones you meet on the staircase and whom you do not like to greet.

I remember acting in a school play about the melting pot when I was very little. There was a great big pot onstage. On the other side of the pot was a little girl who had dark hair, and she and I were representing the Italians. And I thought: Is that what an Italian looked like?

For seven years, I had a business relationship in Milan, Milano. Dealing with Italians, just, let me tell you… Are we the same? Good lord, no! That’s why Europe’s fun – it’s fun because it’s different. A political project that seeks to make it all the same – it’s ghastly.

People think that the Italians invented neorealism, but actually, Humphrey Jennings did. He was revolutionary in using non-professional actors in his films, and he got extraordinary performances out of them.

I am disgusted by the anti-Semitism of many Italians, of many Europeans.

The Italians always know that I’m not Italian.

Italians are fantastic people, really. They can work you over in an alley while singing an opera.

When the national team plays, everyone feels a part of it. Everyone comes together. And when Italians come together, we tend to do well.

Our country undergoes periodic episodes of extreme intolerance and fear of foreigners, refugees in particular. Not only were people of Japanese descent placed in internment camps during World War II, but so were some Italians and Germans.

Most correspondents came from the former colonial powers – there were British, French, and a lot of Italians, because there were a lot of Italian communities there. And of course there were a lot of Russians.

I’d like to do a number of films. Westerns. Genre pieces. Maybe another film about Italian Americans where they’re not gangsters, just to prove that not all Italians are gangsters.

There is in the DNA of the Italians a bit of madness, which in the overwhelming majority of cases is positive. It is genius. It is talent. It’s the masterpieces of art. It’s the food, fashion, everything that makes Italy great in the world.

I was so besotted with ‘8½’ that, when it was on TV, I used to take pictures with my 35-mm. camera of the frames of the film. That was the first time I’d ever really seen Italians on screen.

The biggest problem in Italy is work. And out-of-control immigration damages the labor market because Italians can’t compete with illegal workers who are being exploited. So to restore dignity to work, we must control immigration.

What has impressed me the most about the Italians whose tables we’ve sat at is that they are traditional cooks but also outrageously innovative. These people are wild improvisers.

Some anthems are great for sports. You’ve got the Russian national anthem… ‘O Canada,’ how wonderful is that for hockey… but I chose the Italian national song because at my first World Cup, I saw the Italians play four times, and they won all four times – they won the championship.

I am certain that most Germans have instinctive liking for Italy, just as Italians admire Germans for their many qualities.

Tactically, Italians are very strong. They are a lot into tactics: how to defend, when you lose the ball, where will you be?

You find Jews, Irish, and Italians in every orchestra.

All Italians speak Spanish without studying.

To see how many Italians are going out of Italy, the sort of exodus, a great generation leaving my country, I think is the worst nightmare for me as prime minister but also for the country, of course.

In poetry, I have, since very young, loved poetry in translation. The Chinese, the French, the Russians, Italians, Indians and early Celts: the formality of the translator’s voice, their measured breath and anxiety moves me as it lingers over the original.

I never went to a psychologist or psychiatrist in my life. Never. You know, Italians are a little prejudiced against that kind of thing.

The Italians have their priorities right: They’re driven, they do their work, but they really enjoy the day-to-day and they don’t put off the enjoyment of the everyday for some future goal.

The only antidote to racism – and the Italians are anything but racist – is to return to a respect for laws and regulations and monitor who enters and who leaves this country.

If saying ‘Italians first’ is xenophobic, then I don’t know what to say.

For Russians, to whom Pushkin’s poem ‘Eugene Onegin’ is sacred text, the ballet’s story and personae are as familiar and filled with meaning as, for instance, ‘Romeo’ and ‘Hamlet’ are for us. Russians know whole stretches of it by heart, the way we know Shakespeare and Italians know Dante.

The Italians are very strong defensively. They showed in Euro 2000 how good defensively they are.

Italians tend to be less rigidly moral and law-abiding than do Anglo-Saxons. They also have a profound suspicion of the state and most of its agencies.

And with regard to the Italian family we portrayed on ‘Everybody Loves Raymond’ – Italians and Jews do share two traits: all problems are solved with food, and the mother never leaves you alone.

I come from a family of Catholic Italians, and that will always be in my blood.

The Italians, who used to be a great motor-manufacturing power, have been absolutely destroyed by the euro – as was intended by the Germans.

Italians have no sense of the dramatic.

I love places that have an incredible history. I love the Italian way of life. I love the food. I love the people. I love the attitudes of Italians.

We Italians need to feel like we’re under pressure, we need to see an enemy.

The Yankees, the first mechanicians in the world, are engineers – just as the Italians are musicians and the Germans metaphysicians – by right of birth. Nothing is more natural, therefore, than to perceive them applying their audacious ingenuity to the science of gunnery.

Importing foreign labor has always been the American way, beginning with 4 million slaves from Africa. Later came the Jews and Poles, the Hungarians, Italians and Irish, the Chinese and Japanese – everything you learned in sixth grade social studies about the great American melting pot.

I can design a collection in a day and I always do, cause I’ve always got a load of Italians on my back, moaning that it’s late.