“Why do you speak to me of the stones? It is only the arch that matters to me.”

— Italo Calvino, Invisible Cities, 1972

About Italo Calvino

1923 – 1985

Italian novelist, author of "If on a Winter's Night a Traveler".

“Reading is going toward something that is about to be, and no one yet knows what it will be.”

“Your first book already defines you, while you are really far from being defined.”

“It is true that software cannot exercise its powers of lightness except through the weight of hardware.”

“He is a wise man who does not grieve for the things which he has not, but rejoices for those which he has.”

Attribution note: Source disputed or unverified.

“Knowing yourself is the beginning of all wisdom.”

Attribution note: Source disputed or unverified.

“Yesterday I was clever, so I wanted to change the world. Today I am wise, so I am changing myself.”

“He who knows others is wise; he who knows himself is enlightened.”

Attribution note: Source disputed or unverified.

“The man who asks a question is a fool for a minute, the man who does not ask is a fool for life.”

“The truth is rarely pure and never simple.”