# Antonio Gramsci's most famous quotes

From 'I hate the indifferent' to 'Educate, agitate, organise' and the old that is dying while the new cannot be born: Gramsci's most quoted lines, from his articles in La città futura and L'Ordine Nuovo to the Prison Notebooks and letters.

- 3 votes · 12 items
- Apr 2, 2026 · Alessia Lombardo
- https://even.best/en/l/4656/antonio-gramsci-s-most-famous-quotes

## Top 12

1. **Indifference is a powerful force in history. It acts passively, but it acts.** (1 · ▲1 ▼0) — 'The Indifferent', La città futura, 1917.
2. **Educate yourselves… Agitate… Organise, because we shall need all our strength.** (1 · ▲1 ▼0) — Motto of the first issue of L'Ordine Nuovo, 1 May 1919.
3. **To tell the truth, to arrive together at the truth, is a communist and revolutionary act.** (1 · ▲1 ▼0) — 'Workers' Democracy', L'Ordine Nuovo, 21 June 1919.
4. **I hate the indifferent. Like Friedrich Hebbel, I believe that "to live means to take sides".** (0 · ▲0 ▼0) — 'The Indifferent', La città futura, 11 February 1917.
5. **Illusion is the most tenacious weed in the collective consciousness; history teaches, but it has no pupils.** (0 · ▲0 ▼0) — 'Italy and Spain', L'Ordine Nuovo, 11 March 1921.
6. **The old is dying and the new cannot be born: in this interregnum a great variety of morbid symptoms appear.** (0 · ▲0 ▼0) — Prison Notebooks, notebook 3, § 34.
7. **I am a pessimist because of intelligence, but an optimist because of will.** (0 · ▲0 ▼0) — Prison letter to his brother Carlo, 1929.
8. **All men are intellectuals, but not all men have the function of intellectuals in society.** (0 · ▲0 ▼0) — Prison Notebooks, notebook 12.
9. **Every morning, when I wake up, I feel it is New Year's Day for me. That is why I hate these fixed-date New Years.** (0 · ▲0 ▼0) — 'New Year's Day', Avanti!, 1 January 1916.
10. **Every revolutionary movement is romantic, by definition.** (0 · ▲0 ▼0) — L'Ordine Nuovo, 17 January 1922.
11. **Culture is organisation, discipline of one's inner self; it is taking possession of one's own personality.** (0 · ▲0 ▼0) — 'Socialism and Culture', Il Grido del Popolo, 1916.
12. **You fascists will lead Italy to ruin, and it will be up to us communists to save her!** (0 · ▲0 ▼0) — At his 1928 trial, according to Palmiro Togliatti.

How is this ranking ordered? By people's votes: each ▲ adds a point and each ▼ takes one away. Anyone can vote and add what is missing.