Quotes About Sicily

[alfieb]

"Syracuse is the greatest Greek city and the most beautiful of them all."
-Cicero, Roman orator

"Whatever may happen to the Sicilians, they comment on it with a joke."
-Cicero, Roman orator

"Syracuse is the grandest of cities, a sojourn dear to the indomitable Ares."
-Pindar, Greek poet

"Here it is, then, finally, we were in this Sicily, the goal of our journey, the subject of our discussions for many months, here in its entirety under our feet... This is the home of the gods of Greek mythology. Near these places, Pluto abducted Persephone from her mother in this wood we just crossed, Ceres suspended her rapid chase and, tired of her fruitless search, she sat down on a rock and, although a goddess, she wept, the Greeks say, because she was a mother. Apollo has guarded the herds in the valleys, and these groves and extending to the seashore have echoed the pan flute, the nymphs are lost in their shadows and breathed their fragrance. Here Galatea escaped Polyphemus, and Akis, on the verge of falling under the blows of his rival, enchanted yet these shores and there left his name ... In the distance you can see the lake of Hercules and the rocks of the Cyclops. Sicily, the land of gods and heroes!"
-Tocqueville, French philosopher

"Visiting Italy without going to Sicily leaves no image in the spirit. It is Sicily that is the key to everything!"
-Goethe, German poet

" Throughout the history of the human race no land and no people have suffered so terribly from slavery, from foreign conquests and oppressions, and none have struggled so irrepressibly for emancipation as Sicily and the Sicilians. Almost from the time when Polyphemus promenaded around Etna, or when Ceres taught the Siculi the culture of grain, to our day, Sicily has been the theater of uninterrupted invasions and wars, and of unflinching resistance. The Sicilians are a mixture of almost all southern and northern races; first, of the aboriginal Sicanians, with Phoenicians, Carthaginians, Greeks, and slaves from all regions under heaven, imported into the island by traffic or war; and then of Arabs, Normans, and Italians. The Sicilians, in all these transformations and modifications, have battled, and still battle, for their freedom."
-Marx and Engels, German co-founders of Communism

"And beautiful Sicily that is murky between Pachino and Peloro, (on the gulf which greatest scath from Eurus doth receive) not through Typhoeus, but through nascent sulphur would have awaited her own monarchs still. Through me from Charles descended and from Rudolph. The subject populations, had not moved Palermo to the outcry of 'Death!, Death!' And if my brother could but this foresee. The greedy poverty of Catalonia Straight would he flee, that it might not molest him; For verily it is needful to provide. Through him or other, so that on his bark already freighted no more freight be placed. His nature, which from liberal covetous descended, such a soldiery would need as should not care for hoarding in a chest."
-Dante, Italian poet




Feel free to add more.

[Sikeliot]

This one that you posted was my favorite because I always loved ancient Greek mythology. The only thing not mentioned is Zeus trapping the deadly monster Typhon under Mt. Etna. The Ancient Greeks believed when Mt. Etna erupted, it was Typhon trying to get out from there.


"Here it is, then, finally, we were in this Sicily, the goal of our journey, the subject of our discussions for many months, here in its entirety under our feet... This is the home of the gods of Greek mythology. Near these places, Pluto abducted Persephone from her mother in this wood we just crossed, Ceres suspended her rapid chase and, tired of her fruitless search, she sat down on a rock and, although a goddess, she wept, the Greeks say, because she was a mother. Apollo has guarded the herds in the valleys, and these groves and extending to the seashore have echoed the pan flute, the nymphs are lost in their shadows and breathed their fragrance. Here Galatea escaped Polyphemus, and Akis, on the verge of falling under the blows of his rival, enchanted yet these shores and there left his name ... In the distance you can see the lake of Hercules and the rocks of the Cyclops. Sicily, the land of gods and heroes!"
-Tocqueville, French philosopher

[Vesuvian Sky]

The Marx and Engels quote is particularly interesting. Was that from the Communist Manifesto?

[alfieb]

The Marx and Engels quote is particularly ineresting. Was that from the Communist Manifesto?

No. They go on much further, but I felt the need to cut it down to a reasonable quote. (Only the first of five paragraphs)

http://marxengels.public-archive.net/en/ME1199en.html

[Sicilianu101]

A few Sicilian-Arab Quotes about Sicily:

(Some poems by Ibn Hamdis, Sicilian-Arab Poet)

"Long live that island and its learned people,
long live its vestiges and remains.

Long live the perfume which exhales from there
and which the mornings and the evenings bring up to us.

Long live the living and the dead whose limbs
lie peacefully in their graves."
------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"A country the dove lent its collar
and the peacock covered with the mantle of its feathers.

The poppies seem wine
and the courtyards the glasses.

I remember Sicily and despair renews at its recollection.

lf my tears did not taste bitter
I would believe they are its rivers

Now the poet is old,
My youth has passed away and my white hair
has frightened my antilopes and scattered them away."
------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"May God guard a house in Noto
and rain clouds converge there.

Every hour I think of it
and I send it the tears I shed.

I am nostalgic for the house,
the neighbours, the honesty of the girls.

He who left his heart in that place
with his body desires to return.

Now
I see my country insulted by the Rum who
promenade where the inhabitants lie buried,
they do not have to face the strong defenders any longer.

If those graves could be opened wide they would fling outside fierce lions to attack them.
But I see that when a lion is far from the bush the arrogant wolf shows off."
------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"Oh wind! when you blow the rain clouds
to water the parched fields

send me the dry clouds
so that I may wet them with my tears.

Oh sea! beyond there is my paradise
where I wore joy, not sadness.

When I tried to find there a dawn
you interposed a sunset.

If I could have got what I desired,
when the sea prevented me from meeting it,

I would have crossed it, riding the crescent moon as if it
were I could embrace there the sun."

[alfieb]

"Sicily is unpleasant for the wickedness of its inhabitants to the point that it seems to me odious and almost uninhabitable as well as the frequent poisonous slander, whose immense power puts our people, for its disarming simplicity, in constant danger. The inhabitants of the islands are the most treacherous people and the people of Sicily are false friends and secretly unscrupulous traitors."
-De Blois, French poet

"Sicilians are an acute and suspicious people, born to controversy."
-Cicero, Roman orator

[iNird]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S3yon2GyoiM

You're Sicilian, huh?' 'Yeah, Sicilian.' 'Hmmm... You know, I read a lot. Especiall thins about history. I find that shit fascinating. Here's a fact, I don't know whether you know are not. Sicilians were spawned by niggers.' 'Ehhh... Come again?' 'It's a fact. Sicilians have black blood pumping through their hearts. If you don't believe me, you could look it up. Hundreds of years ago, you see eh, the Moors conquered Sicily. And the Moors are niggers. You see, way back then, Sicilians seemed like waps from Northern Italy. They all had blond hair, blue eyes. But eh, well, then the Moors moved in and eh, well, they changed the whole country. They did so much fucking with Sicilian women that they changed the whole bloodline forever. That's why blond hair, blue eyes, became black hair, dark skin. You know, it's absolutely amazing to me, to think that to this day, hundreds of years later, that eh, that Sicilians still carry that nigger gene. This eh... No, I'm qouting history... It's written. It's a fact, it's written....' 'Ilove this guy, haha...' 'Your ancestors are niggers. Haha. Yeah. And yoyr great, great, great, great grandmother fucked a nigger. Yeah. And she had a halve nigger kid. Now if that's a fact, tell me... am I lyin'? 'Cause you are part eggplant.' 'Ooow. Heei, heei, heei, you are a cantalope..... Oooow. That was beautiful.'

:D

[Sunphq]

"Sicily is unpleasant for the wickedness of its inhabitants to the point that it seems to me odious and almost uninhabitable as well as the frequent poisonous slander, whose immense power puts our people, for its disarming simplicity, in constant danger. The inhabitants of the islands are the most treacherous people and the people of Sicily are false friends and secretly unscrupulous traitors."
-De Blois, French poet

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/a/aa/Francesco_Hayez_023.jpg/800px-Francesco_Hayez_023.jpg

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sicilian_Vespers

lol

[alfieb]

Yeah, the French haven't liked us, and we haven't liked them, going back to the time of De Blois in the 12-13th centuries. Kinda crazy that we've had Norman, Angevin, and Bourbon kings. :lol:

[Peyrol]

''Allora incontro ti verran le belle | Spiagge della Trinacria isola, dove | Pasce il gregge del Sol, pasce l'armento''

Homer, Odyssey

''I siciliani uniti cambieranno il mondo''

Dyonyzion Ist, Tyrann of Syracouse and emperor of Sicily.

''Un giorno questa terra sarà bellissima''

Giovanni Falcone

[alfieb]

"We are the prisoners of the mechanical orgy pursued inside the earth, for we have dug mines, underneath galleries throughout which we sneak in a band beneath the cities that we want to blow up. We already have Sicily."
-Andre Breton, French poet

"In Palermo, it's hard to distinguish the mafia from a good person. For example, every time I go to Palermo, wherever I look, I see the face of a mafioso."
-Silvio Berlusconi, former Italian Prime Minister and convicted felon

"Palermo is sumptuous and obscene at the same time. Palermo is like New Delhi, with the fabulous palaces of the Maharajas and dying bodies of outcasts on the edge of the avenues. Palermo is like Cairo, with the forest of skyscrapers and gardens in the midst of which creep putrid hieroglyphics of shacks. Palermo is like all the capitals of those people who never managed to be nations. In Palermo, the corruption is physical, tangible and aesthetic: a beautiful woman, haggard, swollen, with black fingernails, and therefore also, mysteriously beautiful. Palermo is Sicily's history, all of the cowardice and all of the heroism, the despair, the fury, the defeats, the rebellions. Palermo is the Spaniards, the Moors, the Swabians, the Arabs, the Normans, the Angevins, there is no other place that is as Sicilian as Palermo, but Palermo is not loved by the Sicilians. The people from the west of the island subject themselves because they can not otherwise be recognized, but they would never be citizens. The easterners even say they are of a different race: those are Sicani [ancient tribe from Central Sicily] and we are instead Siculi [ancient tribe from Eastern Sicily]."
-Giuseppe Fava, Sicilian writer

[Sicilianu101]

"In Palermo, it's hard to distinguish the mafia from a good person. For example, every time I go to Palermo, wherever I look, I see the face of a mafioso."
-Silvio Berlusconi, former Italian Prime Minister and convicted felon


When I saw this right after they wrote a news article about it, it felt like it was sooo racist.. i honestly was really offended. no different than saying that "blacks look like criminals" or "arabs look like terrorists."

Berlusconi is so ignorant and prejudice. How did he get so many votes in the recent election?? Thank God he wasnt elected but still he shouldn't have even be close to winning.. Italians.. smh

[Peyrol]

"In Palermo, it's hard to distinguish the mafia from a good person. For example, every time I go to Palermo, wherever I look, I see the face of a mafioso."
-Silvio Berlusconi, former Italian Prime Minister and convicted felon



Well, it's a milanese cumenda (a category very hated here in Torino) and a complete idiot, what you pretend?

[SkyBurn]

"Isn't Sicily just a swarthier, more inbred version of Italy?" - SkyBurn the Wise

:laugh:

(jks)

[alfieb]

"Isn't Sicily just a swarthier, more inbred version of Italy?" - SkyBurn the Wise

:laugh:

(jks)

No, that's Sardinia.

[Peyrol]

"Isn't Sicily just a swarthier, more inbred version of Italy?" - SkyBurn the Wise

:laugh:

(jks)


Do you like this swarty sicilian? Or is too arabid for your taste?

http://images.movieplayer.it/2008/09/14/una-foto-di-miriam-leone-88254.jpg