When I was a little boy, I was reading Dante and I was saying to myself 'Bravo, Dante, Bravo.' It's so beautiful, the music, the sound, the meaning. I felt like calling him by phone, like a friend.
Roberto BenigniRead
In Italy, the country where fascism was born, we have a particular relation with the Holocaust, but as a turning point in history it belongs to everybody in the world. It is a part of humanity.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The Holocaust is a shared human tragedy that transcends national boundaries.
Roberto Benigni emphasizes that while Italy has its unique connection to the history of fascism, the Holocaust is a significant event that touches all of humanity. It serves as a reminder of the collective responsibility to remember and learn from the past, highlighting that such horrors belong to global history and must not be forgotten by anyone, regardless of nationality.
Themes
HolocaustHumanityHistoryMemoryFascism
In practice
Example use cases
During a talk on human rights, one could use this quote to emphasize the importance of collective memory.
More from Roberto Benigni
All quotes →Only comedians can talk about death, life, God and Virgin Mary. If I was a tragic actor, I couldn't allow myself. But with this accent I can do it. I can talk with death in person because I am a clown. Yes. And I am proud to be a clown - very much.
Roberto BenigniRead
I'm a storyteller: the crux of the matter is to reach beauty, poetry; it doesn't matter if that is comedy or tragedy. They're the same if you reach the beauty.
Roberto BenigniRead
When we talk to somebody and we want to be nice or polite or show our more beautiful side, we try to use the best words that we know. This is what poets are doing. They are cleaning the words, they are inventing the sentiments, they are giving us a way to communicate.
Roberto BenigniRead
Similar quotes
You'll forget it when you're dead, and so will I. When I'm dead, I'm going to forget everything–and I advise you to do the same.
Kurt VonnegutRead
If you do things, whether it's acting or music or painting, do it without fear - that's my philosophy. Because nobody can arrest you and put you in jail if you paint badly, so there's nothing to lose.
Anthony HopkinsRead
Those who do not think that employment is systemic slavery are either blind or employed.
Nassim Nicholas TalebRead
Leaving out the gamblers, the burglars, and the plumbers, perhaps we do put our trust in God after a fashion. But, after all, it is an overstatement. If the cholera or black plague should come to these shores, perhaps the bulk of the nation would pray to be delivered from it, but the rest would put their trust in The Health Board.
Mark TwainRead
Mold clay into a bowl. The empty space makes it useful.
LaoziRead
This freedom of movement is the very essence of our free society, setting us apart. Like the right of assembly and the right of association, it often makes all other rights meaningful-knowing, studying, arguing, exploring, conversing, observing and even thinking. Once the right to travel is curtailed, all other rights suffer, just as when curfew or home detention is placed on a person.
William O. DouglasRead