Venice Quotes

“To be insular is to be independent. But it is also to be alone.”
― Peter Ackroyd, Venice: Pure City

“Bigotry does not consort easily with free trade.”
― Peter Ackroyd, Venice: Pure City

“Insecurity of the spirit demands completeness elsewhere.”
― Peter Ackroyd, Venice: Pure City

“Glass is material sea.”
― Peter Ackroyd, Venice: Pure City

“The fall of Venice was just a change in its historical identity. We cannot say that it was a disgrace or triumph, because we do not know who in the end is triumphant and who is disgraced.”
― Peter Ackroyd, Venice: Pure City

“It is the nature of humankind to idealize, to indulge in excessive praise as well as unjust condemnation.”
― Peter Ackroyd, Venice: Pure City

“The people had once created the city. The city now created the people, or, more exactly, the people of Venice now identified themselves more in terms of the city. The private had become public.”
― Peter Ackroyd, Venice: Pure City

“The presence of water invites song and music; there is something about its flow, and the sound of its flow, that elicits other melodies.”
― Peter Ackroyd, Venice: Pure City

“Water is a great leveller...On water all are at an equal level.”
― Peter Ackroyd, Venice: Pure City

“It is one of the attributes of capitalist enterprise that an object is no longer significant for its essence but for its exchange value.”
― Peter Ackroyd, Venice: Pure City

“A large proportion of Venetians worked in the textile industry. There were the lace-makers, their eyesight ruined by their labour. Children, from the age of five, were enrolled in the trade. The exquisite refinement of the art, prized by the rich matrons of Europe, can be measured in human suffering.”
― Peter Ackroyd, Venice: Pure City

“The root of narcissism lies in anxiety, and the fear of fragmentation, which may be assuaged by the sight of the reflection.”
― Peter Ackroyd, Venice: Pure City

“Is there not something more glorious about making music than making war?”
― Peter Ackroyd, Venice: Pure City

“The body of Saint Mark, supposedly preserved in the basilica was the central point of the configuration between the ducal palace, the market, and the Arsenal. This was the sacred geometry of Venetian power.”
― Peter Ackroyd, Venice: Pure City