Antonio Gramsci's most famous quotes
The top 3 according to 3 votes from people: Indifference is a powerful force in history. It acts passively, but it acts. · Educate yourselves… Agitate… Organise, because we shall need all our strength. · To tell the truth, to arrive together at the truth, is a communist and revolutionary act.. (Updated Apr 2, 2026.)
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.
Automatically translated (original in Italiano). See the original
Top 12
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1
Indifference is a powerful force in history. It acts passively, but it acts.
'The Indifferent', La città futura, 1917.
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2
Educate yourselves… Agitate… Organise, because we shall need all our strength.
Motto of the first issue of L'Ordine Nuovo, 1 May 1919.
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3
To tell the truth, to arrive together at the truth, is a communist and revolutionary act.
'Workers' Democracy', L'Ordine Nuovo, 21 June 1919.
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4
I hate the indifferent. Like Friedrich Hebbel, I believe that "to live means to take sides".
'The Indifferent', La città futura, 11 February 1917.
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5
Illusion is the most tenacious weed in the collective consciousness; history teaches, but it has no pupils.
'Italy and Spain', L'Ordine Nuovo, 11 March 1921.
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6
The old is dying and the new cannot be born: in this interregnum a great variety of morbid symptoms appear.
Prison Notebooks, notebook 3, § 34.
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7
I am a pessimist because of intelligence, but an optimist because of will.
Prison letter to his brother Carlo, 1929.
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8
All men are intellectuals, but not all men have the function of intellectuals in society.
Prison Notebooks, notebook 12.
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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.
'New Year's Day', Avanti!, 1 January 1916.
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10
Every revolutionary movement is romantic, by definition.
L'Ordine Nuovo, 17 January 1922.
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11
Culture is organisation, discipline of one's inner self; it is taking possession of one's own personality.
'Socialism and Culture', Il Grido del Popolo, 1916.
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12
You fascists will lead Italy to ruin, and it will be up to us communists to save her!
At his 1928 trial, according to Palmiro Togliatti.
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