# Pier Paolo Pasolini's most famous quotes

"I am a force of the Past", the body as a land not yet colonised by power and the courage of truth in Italy: the most quoted lines of Pier Paolo Pasolini, from his poems to the Scritti corsari, with their source.

- 87 votes · 13 items
- Feb 17, 2026 · Alessia Lombardo
- https://even.best/en/l/5048/pier-paolo-pasolini-s-most-famous-quotes

## Top 13

1. **To be a poet, you need a lot of time.** (7 · ▲9 ▼2) — "To the Prince", in The Religion of My Time (1961).
2. **Only loving, only knowing matters, not having loved, not having known.** (7 · ▲8 ▼1) — "The Cry of the Excavator", in The Ashes of Gramsci (1957).
3. **Do not fool yourself: passion is never forgiven.** (7 · ▲8 ▼1) — "To Chiaromonte", in The Religion of My Time (1961).
4. **Solitude: you have to be very strong to love solitude.** (6 · ▲7 ▼1) — "Verses of the Testament", in Trasumanar e organizzar (1971).
5. **The body: there is a land not yet colonised by power.** (6 · ▲6 ▼0) — Essays on Politics and Society.
6. **I am a force of the Past. My love lies only in tradition.** (5 · ▲6 ▼1) — Poesie mondane, in Poetry in the Form of a Rose (1964).
7. **The intellectual courage of truth and political practice are two irreconcilable things in Italy.** (5 · ▲5 ▼0) — "The Novel of the Massacres", in Scritti corsari (1975).
8. **Whoever is scandalised is always banal; and, I would add, always badly informed.** (5 · ▲5 ▼0) — Lutheran Letters (1976).
9. **Love, in the end, is aridity.** (4 · ▲4 ▼0) — "Language", in The Nightingale of the Catholic Church (1958).
10. **But of course, to understand how people change, you have to love them.** (3 · ▲4 ▼1) — "The Article on the Fireflies", in Scritti corsari (1975).
11. **Vulgarity is conformity in full bloom.** (3 · ▲4 ▼1) — La Divina Mimesis (1975).
12. **I know this: those who demand freedom then do not know what to do with it.** (2 · ▲6 ▼4) — Il caos, his column in Tempo (1968).
13. **We hate the conformity of others because it keeps us from taking an interest in our own.** (1 · ▲2 ▼1) — La Divina Mimesis (1975).

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