Indro Montanelli Quotes

Democracy is always, by nature and constitution, the triumph of mediocrity.

The only advice that I'm in the mood to give - and that I give regularly - to young people is this: fight for what you believe in. You will lose, just like I have lost, all the battles. But only one you may win. The one that you engage every morning, in front of the mirror.

Fascism rewarded jackasses in uniform. Democracy gives privileges to those in sports' gear. In Italy, political regimes come to pass. Jackasses remain. Triumphant.

The love of power excludes all others.

You give Italy Jesus Christ and you get the Roman Catholic Church.

Pertini has interpreted as their best the worst about Italians.

Cynics are all moralists, and merciless too.

An Italian university is a contradiction in terms.

I have never dreamt of contesting the Church her right to remain faithful to herself, meaning to the commandments that come from Doctrine... but that she expects to impose these commandments upon me who do not have the good fortune of being a believer, trying to pour them into civil law in a way that they become obligatory even to us non-believers, is it right? To me it doesn't seem so.

Which ever one of you will want to become a journalist, let him remember to choose his own master: the reader.

Servitude, in many cases, is not forced upon by the masters, but a temptation of the servants.

I know many crooks and they never preach, but I don't know anyone who preaches that isn't a crook also.

Politicians do nothing but ask of us, during every expiration of a legal statute, "a gesture of trust." But here trust is not enough; what's needed is an act of faith.

The nice thing about political pundits is that, when they answer a question, one no longer understands what they were asked.

A real writer [...] looks not in another writer but himself.

[Addressed to Berlusconi who wanted to impose himself on the editorial style of "Il Giornale"] In the art of entrepeneurship, you are certainly a genius, and I an asshole. But in the art of argument the genius is me, and you the asshole.

Depression is a democratic sickness: it afflicts everyone.

Men do not know how to appreciate and measure luck except that of others. Their own never.

It isn't necessary to be socialists in order to love Pertini. Whatever he says or does, smells of cleanliness, of loyalty and of sincerity.

Italian husbands, in order to buy their wives a fur coat, spend more than all their European collegues.

Also we Italians have something to Elvis Presley: to offer one of the rare occasions when we prefer to be Italian rather than American.

Certainly, for a newspaper director, to have within arm's reach a Travaglio, about whom every starring actor, supporting cast and extra of Italian political life he is ready upon cold request to provide an inquiry brief refined in the most minute details is a nice comfort. But also a bit unsettling. The day I asked him if in that archive, into which no one is allowed to stick their nose, there were a brief with my name on it, Marco changed the subject.