Quotes by Antonio Gramsci

About Antonio Gramsci:

Antonio Gramsci is best known for his theory of cultural hegemony, which describes how states use cultural institutions to maintain power in capitalist societies.
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

I'm a pessimist because of intelligence, but an optimist because of will.

Antonio Gramsci

The brain is not nourished on beans and truffles but rather the food manages to reconstitute the molecules of the brain once it has been turned into homogeneous and assimilable substances, which potentially have the "same nature", as the molecules of...

Antonio Gramsci

Common sense is a chaotic aggregate of disparate conceptions, and one can find there anything that one like.

Antonio Gramsci

Common sense is not a single unique conception, identical in time and space. It is the "folklore" of philosophy, and, like folklore, it takes countless different forms. Its most fundamental character is that it is a conception which, even in the brai...

Antonio Gramsci

Ideas and opinions are not spontaneously "born" in each individual brain: they have had a centre of formation, or irradiation, of dissemination, of persuasion-a group of men, or a single individual even, which has developed them and presented them in...

Antonio Gramsci

The whole of language is a continuous process of metaphor, and the history of semantics is an aspect of the history of culture; language is at the same time a living thing and a museum of fossils of life and civilisations.

Antonio Gramsci

Possibility means "freedom". The measure of freedom enters into the concept of man. That the objective possibilities exist for people not to die of hunder and that people do die of hunger, has its importance, or so one would have thought. But the exi...

Antonio Gramsci

It should never be forgotten that, in the struggle between the nations, it is in the interest of each one of them that the other should be weakened by internal struggle. Hence it is always possible to pose the question of whether the parties exist by...

Antonio Gramsci

A man of politics writes about philosophy: it could be that his "true" philosophy should be looked for rather in his writings on politics. In every personality there is one dominant and predominant activity: it is here that his thought must be looked...

Antonio Gramsci

The crisis creates situations which are dangerous in the short run, since the various strata of the population are not all capable of orienting themselves equally swiftly, or of reorganizing with the same rhythm. The traditional ruling class, which h...

Antonio Gramsci

Since defeat in the Struggle must always be envisaged, the preparation of one's own successors is as important as what one does for victory.

Antonio Gramsci

My practicality consists in this, in the knowledge that if you beat your head against the wall it is your head which breaks and not the wall - that is my strength, my only strength.

Antonio Gramsci

To tell the truth is revolutionary.

Antonio Gramsci

I turn and turn in my cell like a fly that doesn't know where to die.

Antonio Gramsci

Pessimism of the spirit; optimism of the will.

Antonio Gramsci

The challenge of modernity is to live without illusions and without becoming disillusioned.

Antonio Gramsci

The crisis consists precisely in the fact that the old is dying and the new cannot be born; in this interregnum a great variety of morbid symptoms appear.

Antonio Gramsci

At the limit it could be said that every speaking being has a personal language of his own, that is his own particular way of thinking and feeling. Culture, at its various levels, unifies in a series of strata, to the extent that they come into conta...

Antonio Gramsci

The popular element "feels" but does not always know or understand; the intellectual element "knows" but does not always understand and in particular does not always feel.

Antonio Gramsci

The point of modernity is to live a life without illusions while not becoming disillusioned

Antonio Gramsci

Author Bio

  • NameAntonio Gramsci
  • DescriptionItalian writer, politician, theorist, sociologist and linguist
  • BornJanuary 22, 1891
  • DiedApril 27, 1937
  • CountryItaly
  • ProfessionPhilosopher; Politician; Author; Journalist
  • AwardsViareggio Prize