Sicilian Quotes

• Never go in against a Sicilian when death is on the line.

  William Goldman

  Books And Movies, Lines, Geek

  William Goldman (2013). “The Princess Bride”, p.116, A&C Black

  91 Copy quote

  Show source

• Fool!" cried the hunchback. "You fell victim to one of the classic blunders. The most famous is 'Never get involved in a land war in Asia,' but only slightly less well known is this: 'Never go in against a Sicilian when death is on the line.

  William Goldman

  War, Land, Lines

  William Goldman (2013). “The Princess Bride”, p.116, A&C Black

  89 Copy quote

  Show source

• I'm pretty Sicilian if I've been crossed. I don't seek revenge, but I never forget. And I make it hard to repair, which is not a great quality because if people held me to that standard, no one would be around me - ever.

  Amy Adams

  Revenge, People, Quality

  65 Copy quote

• I took acting and elocution lessons, to get rid of my Sicilian accent.

  Maria Grazia Cucinotta

  Acting, Elocution, Lessons

  87 Copy quote

• You grow up in a Sicilian household, becoming an actor is not a big leap.

  Vincent Schiavelli

  Growing Up, Actors, Becoming

  60 Copy quote

• My early childhood prepared me to be a social psychologist. I grew up in a South Bronx ghetto in a very poor family. From Sicilian origin, I was the first person in my family to complete high school, let alone go to college.

  Philip Zimbardo

  Ghetto, School, College

  "Emperor of the Edge". Interview with Christina Maslach, www.psychologytoday.com. September 1, 2000.

  66 Copy quote

  Show source

• As my Sicilian grandfather used to say, you get more flies with honey than with vinegar, right?

  Andrew Cuomo

  Grandfather, Honey, Vinegar

  "The (Real) Governator". Interview with Lisa Depaulo, www.gq.com. December 14, 2011.

  56 Copy quote

  Show source

• Every lesson I learned as a kid was at the dinner table. Being Greek, Sicilian and Ruthenian - we are an emotional bunch. It is where we laughed, cried and yelled - but most importantly, where we bonded and connected.

  Michael Symon

  Kids, Emotional, Greek

  52 Copy quote

• Never get involved in a land war in Asia.

  William Goldman

  War, Land, Asia

  William Goldman (2013). “The Princess Bride”, p.116, A&C Black

  65 Copy quote

  Show source

• I grew up in the Lower East Side of New York.

  Liev Schreiber

  New York, East, Sides

  "Showbiz Today Star of Tomorrow". "Showbiz Today Star of Tomorrow" with Lori Blackman, www.cnn.com. September 7, 2000.

  18 Copy quote

  Show source

• I come from a line of great Sicilian women, and their mentality is to endure and push through to the other side.

  Cyndi Lauper

  Lines, Sides, Endure

  "Cyndi Lauper: This much I know". Interview with Priya Elan, www.theguardian.com. October 20, 2012.

  11 Copy quote

  Show source

• In America most everybody who's Italian is half Italian. Except me. I'm all Italian. I'm mostly Sicilian, and I have a little bit of Neapolitan in me. You get your full dose with me.

  Al Pacino

  Italian, America, Half

  "Biography/Personal Quotes". www.imdb.com.

  22 Copy quote

  Show source

• Montalbano felt moved. This was real friendship, Sicilian friendship, the kind based on intuition, on what was left unsaid. With a true friend, one never needs to ask, because the other understands on his own accordingly.

  Andrea Camilleri

  True Friend, Real, Intuition

  Andrea Camilleri (2012). “Inspector Montalbano: The first three novels in the series”, p.449, Pan Macmillan

  12 Copy quote

  Show source

• But beneath it all will run that Sicilian understanding that the underside of joy is grief, that the face of sacrifice and suffering is the dark mirror image of pleasure and enjoyment, that every moment of arrival is to be treasured and enjoyed in the full knowledge that it has brought us a moment closer to the moment of departure.

  Francine Prose

  Running, Grief, Dark

  Francine Prose (2011). “Sicilian Odyssey”, p.26, National Geographic Books

  9 Copy quote

  Show source

• Sometimes they'll make little Play-Doh animals, and when they go to sleep, I'll break the heads off the animals and put them at the foot of their beds for them to discover in the morning. Nothing wrong with sending your kids a little Sicilian message.

  Jerry Seinfeld

  Morning, Sleep, Kids

  9 Copy quote

• My mother was a strong-willed and opinionated woman - a Sicilian! - and if she didn't like something, she'd let you know about it. So her undying support of her kids went a long way in proving to us that we were on the right path.

  Marlo Thomas

  Mother, Strong, Kids

  16 Copy quote

• I love Italian food but that's too generic a term for what's available now: you have to narrow it down to Tuscan, Sicilian, and so on.

  Lee Child

  Italian, Term, Generic

  "Lee Child's Los Angeles". Interview with York Membery, www.telegraph.co.uk. November 1, 2010.

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• Having spent alarmingly large chunks of my life studying the white side of the Open Sicilian, I find myself asking, why did I bother?

  Daniel J. King

  Asking Why, White, Chess

  8 Copy quote

• The envious pine at others' success; no greater punishment than envy was devised by Sicilian tyrants.

  Horace

  Punishment, Tyrants, Envy

  "Hoyt's New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations" by Jehiel Keeler Hoyt, p. 226-27, Epistles, I. 2. 57, 1922.

  7 Copy quote

  Show source

• Had I not played the Sicilian with Black I could have saved myself the trouble of studying for more than 20 years all the more popular lines of this opening, which comprise probably more than 25 percent of all published opening theory!

  Bent Larsen

  Years, Black, Lines

  13 Copy quote

• The Sicilian tyrants never devised a greater punishment than envy.

  Juvenal

  Punishment, Tyrants, Envy

  5 Copy quote

• No Southern people ever seem to possess the energy of their Northern brothers, and in Sicily a dolce far niente life is much enjoyed. Time is no object. According to Pliny, Aristhomacus watched the life of the bee carefully for fifty-eight years, which is just the sort of work a Sicilian of to-day would like.

  Alec-Tweedie

  Brother, Eight, Years

  Mrs. Alec-Tweedie (Ethel) (1904). “Sunny Sicily: Its Rustics and Its Ruins”

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• I want a baby from an Italian - possibly Sicilian - donor.

  Lady Gaga

  Baby, Italian, Want

  "Lady GaGa: 'I want Italian sperm donor'" by Leah Simpson, www.digitalspy.com. February 1, 2012.

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• See?" Fezzik pointed then. Far down, at the very bottom of the mountain path, the man in black could be seen running. "Inigo is beaten." Inconceivable!" exploded the Sicilian. Fezzik never dared disagree with the hunchback. "I'm so stupid," Fezzik nodded. "Inigo has not lost to the man in black, he has defeated him. And to prove it he has put on all the man in black's clothes and masks and hoods and boots and gained eighty pounds.

  William Goldman

  Running, Stupid, Men

  William Goldman (2013). “The Princess Bride”, p.100, A&C Black

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• The Sicilian Defence was our attempt at quickly fulfilling our contractual obligation after I Robot, Pyramid and Eve had been delivered. The album was rejected by Arista, not surprisingly, and we then renegotiated our deal for the future and the next album, The Turn of a Friendly Card. The Sicilian Defence album was never released and never will be, if I have anything to do with it. I have not heard it since it was finished. I hope the tapes no longer exist.

  Alan Parsons

  Pyramids, Friendly, Robots

  8 Copy quote