"The fancies of wine are authentic events."
— Italo Svevo (Zeno's Conscience: A Novel)

"Who knows whether, if I had given up smoking, I should really have become the strong perfect man I imagined? Perhaps it was this very doubt that bound me to my vice, because life is so much pleasanter if one is able to believe in one's own latent greatness"
— Italo Svevo

"Under the law established by the possessor of the greatest number of devices, sickness and the sick will flourish. "
— Italo Svevo (Zeno's Conscience: A Novel)

"You see things less clearly when you open your eyes too wide. "
— Italo Svevo (Zeno's Conscience: A Novel)

"Misunderstanding women is a clear sign of scant virility. "
— Italo Svevo (Zeno's Conscience: A Novel)

"It is comfortable to live in the belief that you are great, though your greatness is latent. "
— Italo Svevo (Zeno's Conscience: A Novel)

"True religion, indeed, is that which does not have to be avowed in order to provide the solace that at times...if only rarely...you cannot do without.
Zeno's Conscience"
— Italo Svevo