The Leopard Quotes

Tancredi Falconeri: If we want things to stay as they are, things will have to change.

Prince Don Fabrizio Salina: We were the leopards, the lions, those who take our place will be jackals and sheep, and the whole lot of us - leopards, lions, jackals and sheep - will continue to think ourselves the salt of the earth.

Prince Don Fabrizio Salina: Sleep, my dear Chevalley, eternal sleep, that is what Sicilians want. And they will always resent anyone who tries to awaken them, even to bring them the most wonderful of gifts. And, between ourselves, I doubt very strongly whether this new Kingdom has very many gifts for us in its luggage. All Sicilian expression, even the most violent, is really a wish for death. Our sensuality, wish for oblivion. Our knifings and shootings, a hankering after extinction. Our laziness, our spiced and drugged sherbets, a desire for voluptuous immobility, that is... for death again.

Prince Don Fabrizio Salina: [of the Sicilians] "They never want to improve. They think themselves perfect. Their vanity is greater than their misery."

Don Francisco Ciccio Tumeo: It seems Donna Bastiana is a kind of animal. She can't read, write, or tell time. She can barely talk. She's even incapable of loving her own daughter. Good for bed, and that's all. But what can you expect? You know whose daughter she is? She's the daughter of one of your peasants from Runci. His name was Peppe Giunta. He was so filthy and savage that everyone called him Peppe Cowshit.

Prince Don Fabrizio Salina: You know what is happening in our country? Nothing... simply an imperceptible replacement of one class for another. The middle class doesn't want to destroy us. It simply wants to take our place... and very gently.

Prince Don Fabrizio Salina: I belong to an unlucky generation, astride between two worlds and ill-at-ease in both. And what is more, I am completely without illusions. Now, what would the Senate do with me, an inexperienced legislator who lacks the faculty for self-deception, an essential requisite for wanting to guide others. No, I cannot lift a finger in politics. It would be bitten off.

Prince Don Fabrizio Salina: [to Father Pirronr] You're used to naked souls. You should know that naked bodies are far more innocent.

Prince Don Fabrizio Salina: Things will have to change in order that they remain the same.

Prince Don Fabrizio Salina: Yes, love, of course! Fire and flames for a year, ashes for thirty. I too know what love is.

Prince Don Fabrizio Salina: We're not blind in spirit, Father. We're just human beings in a changing world.

Father Pirrone: The nobles, as you call them, are not easy to understand. They live in a world of their own, not created by God but by themselves, through centuries of experience, troubles and joys. They're upset or pleased about things that matter little to you and me - but are vital to them. I don't mean they're bad people. Far from it. They're... different. They take no notice of things that we hold important, and they have fears of which we're ignorant. For example, for the Prince of Salina, it would be a tragedy to give up his holiday at Donnafugata, where we're headed. But if you ask him what he thinks of the revolution, he will say there is no revolution and that everything will go on as before.

Prince Don Fabrizio Salina: Father... take my advice - have a bath yourself occasionally.

Prince Don Fabrizio Salina: Look here, Father. A man of 45 can still consider himself young until he realizes he has children old enough for love. Then old age comes over him in one blow.

Concetta: Tancredi, one tells nasty tales like that to a confessor, not to young ladies at the table - or at least not when I'm there!

Don Francisco Ciccio Tumeo: But even in the best kept houses secrets come out. Servants talk.

Princess Maria Stella Salina: It's outrageous! And I'd so hoped he would marry Concetta! He's a traitor, like all liberals of his kind! First he betrays his king, and now us. He, with that lying face of his, those honeyed words and poisoned actions! That's what happens when one lets people into one's home who aren't of our own blood.

Prince Don Fabrizio Salina: This isn't the end of anything. It's the beginning of everything!

Father Pirrone: There's a storm brewing.

Prince Don Fabrizio Salina: Your intention is good, but it comes too late.

Prince Don Fabrizio Salina: I was thinking that these frequent marriages between cousins do not improve the stock. Look at them. They look like monkeys, ready to clamber up the chandeliers and swing by their tails showing their behinds.

Prince Don Fabrizio Salina: I often think about death. The idea doesn't frighten me. You young people can't understand. To you, death doesn't exist. It's something that happens to others.

Concetta: Three balls in a week are too much.

Prince Don Fabrizio Salina: O faithful star... when will you give me an appointment less ephemeral, far from all this, in your own region of perennial certitude?