Sicilian & Italian Quotes
“If you are not Italian, you missed half the movie” Salvatore Cristaldi
SICILIAN PROVERBS
Sicilian: Cu mancia fa muddichi
Literal English Translation: A person eating must make crumbs
Idiom: You have to break a few eggs to make an omlette
Sicilian: Chiddu arrusti u so pesci nte ciammi di l’incediu.
Literal English Translation: The fellow roasts his fish in the flames of a fire.
Idiom: He takes advantage of the misfortunes of others.
Sicilian: Cu gaddu e senza gaddu, diu fa journa
Literal English Translation: God will make the the sun rise with or without the rooster
Idiom: Give credit where credit is due.
Sicilian: Tinemu d’occhiu u scurpiuni e u sirpenti, ma nunni vardamu du millipedi
Literal English Translation: We keep an eye on the scorpion and the serpent, but we do not watch the millipede
Idiom: The devil dwells in details.
Sicilian: U pesci fet d’a testa
Literal English Translation: Fish start smelling from the head
Idiom: Corruption starts at the top
Sicilian: Nun si po’ aviri la carni senz’ ossu
Literal English Translation: You can’t have meat without the bone
Idiom: Take the good with the bad
Sicilian: Vidi ch’un s’affaccia quacchi fungi
Literal English Translation: Watch out for the appearing mushroom
Idiom: Beware of the unforseen obstacle
Famous Sicilian Proverbs & Expressions
with Emphasis on Arabic Words & Idioms
Sicilian: Nenti mi ratta a manu comu i me unga
Literal English Translation: Nothing scratches my hand like my own nails
Idiom: No one knows my business better than I do
Sicilian: I palori nimici fannu ridiri chiddi di l’amici fanni chianciri
Literal English Translation: The words of enemies make you laugh, but those of friends can make you cry
Idiom: Disdain your enemies boasting, buy pay heed to friend’s advice
Sicilian: Non essiri duci sinno tu mancianu, non essiri amaru sinno ti futanu
Literal English Translation: Do not be sweet lest you be eaten, do not be too sour, lest you be shunned
Idiom: All things in moderation
Sicilian: Camina chi pantofuli finu a quannu non hai i scarpi
Literal English Translation: Walk with your slippers until you find your shoes
Idiom: Make due with what you got (make the best of a bad situation)
FAMOUS QUOTES
Just because we are not Italian, does not mean we cannot appreciate Michelangelo, it is the same with cuisine – – Tony Bourdain
Nature is the art of God eternal – – Dante
Give me a laundry-list and I’ll set it to music — Gioacchino Rossini
Iron rusts from disuse, stagnant water loses its purity and in cold water becomes frozen; so does inaction sap the vigors of the mind – – Leonardo da Vinci
You cannot teach a man anything; you can only help him find it within himself – – Galileo
I am a product of my native land, Tuscany, Italy – – Andrea Bocelli
It Ain’t Over till it’s over – – Yogi Berra
In order to share intimate feelings, you have to have intimate feelings – – Dean Martin
May you live to be 100 and may the last voice you hear be mine – – Frank Sinatra
There is no end. There is no beginning. There is only the infinite passion of life – – Federico Fellini
Time can be the greatest friend. Time can be the greatest enemy. But time, waits for no body – – Nick Stellino
It’s a family that’s loaded with grudges and passion. We come from a long line of robbers and highwaymen in Italy, you know. Killers, even. – – Nicolas Cage
One of the first signs of being depressed is that you lose interest in things. That’s why I think it is important to stay passionate. – – Nicolas Cage
Passion is very important to me. If you stop enjoying things, you’ve got to look at it, because it can lead to all kinds of depressing scenarios. – – Nicolas Cage
You people married to Italian men, you know what it’s like. – – Geraldine A. Ferraro
Ne di Venere Ne di Marte non si sposa ne si parte (Neither marry nor depart on the day of Venus or of Mars)
Sposa bagnata, sposa fortunata (Rain on a bride’s wedding day is good luck)
La buona moglie fa il buon marito (A good wife makes a good husband)
La moglie e’ la chiave di casa (The wife is the key of the house)
Tra moglie e marito … non mettere il dito (Don’t ever get between wife and husband)
La prima e’ Matrimonio, la seconda comagnia, la terza un’eresia (The first wife is marriage, the second company, the third heresy)
Meglio il marito senz’amore, che con gelosia (Better to have a husband without love than with jealousy)
Chi ha moglie ha doglie (Who has a wife has strife)
Chi non ha moglie non ha padrone (Who has no wife has no master)
Sicilian Proverbs on Marriage
Casa senza fimmina ‘mpuvirisci (A house without a woman is poor)
Matrimoni e viscuvati, di lu celu su mannati (Weddings and bishops are heavensent)
A nickel ain’t worth a dime anymore – – Yogi Berra
Money comes, and money goes, but your family will always be your family,
and only what you have in your heart and soul they can never take away – – Nick Stellino
A lawyer with a briefcase can steal more than a thousand men with guns – – Mario Puzo
Hell hath no fury like a hustler with a literary agent – – Frank Sinatra
When lip service to some mysterious deity permits bestiality on Wednesday and absolution on Sunday, cash me out – – Frank Sinatra
The Holy Roman Empire was neither holy, nor Roman, nor an empire – – Voltaire
May God defend me from my friends, I can defend myself from my enemies – – Voltaire
Where there is no wine, there is no love – – Euriphids
I don’t drink anymore… I freeze it and eat it like a popsicle – – Dean Martin
I once shook hands with Pat Boone and my whole right side sobered up – – Dean Martin
If you drink don’t drive. Don’t even putt – – Dean Martin
I feel sorry for people who don’t drink. They wake up in the morning and that’s the best they’re going to feel all day – – Dean Martin
Put your sunglasses on, because you ain’t going home till the morning comes – – Frank Sinatra
Basically, I’m for anything that gets you through the night – be it prayer, tranquilizers or a bottle of Jack Daniels – – Frank Sinatra
Here’s to the confusion of our enemies! – – Frank Sinatra
As usual, your information stinks – – Telegram to TIME Magazine – – Frank Sinatra
Chicken Soup for the Soul? How about Tomato Sauce for your Ass, its the Italian version – – James Gandolfini, The Sopranos
Rock ‘n Roll: The most brutal, ugly, desperate, vicious form of expression it has been my misfortune to hear – – Frank Sinatra
Computers are worthless. They can only give you answers – – Pablo Picasso (1881-1973)
The future ain’t what it used to be – – Yogi Berra
I just want to thank everyone who made this day necessary – – Yogi Berra
I really didn’t say everything I said – – Yogi Berra
I wish I had an answer to that because I’m tired of answering that question – – Yogi Berra
If you ask me anything I don’t know, I’m not going to answer – – Yogi Berra
You’ve got to be very careful if you don’t know where you are going, because you might not get there – – Yogi Berra
You wouldn’t have won if we’d beaten you – – Yogi Berra
You can observe a lot by watching – – Yogi Berra
When you arrive at a fork in the road, take it – – Yogi Berra
We made too many wrong mistakes – – Yogi Berra
The other teams could make trouble for us if they win – – Yogi Berra
People don’t go there anymore. It’s too crowded – – Yogi Berra
It’s like deja-vu, all over again – – Yogi Berra
It was impossible to get a conversation going, everybody was talking too much – – Yogi Berra
You’ll always make good food from great ingredients, but you will never make great food from bad ingredients – – Michael Chiarrello
Nature is the art of God eternal – – Dante
No duty is more urgent than that of returning thanks – – Saint Ambrose
A man paints with his brains and not with his hands – – Michelangelo
Famous Quotes From Sinatra
May you live to be 100 and may the last voice you hear be mine.
Critics don’t bother me because if I do badly, I know I’m bad before they even write it. And if I’m good, I know I’m good. I know best about myself, so a critic doesn’t anger me.
I lived in a plenty tough neighborhood. When somebody called me a ‘dirty little Guinea’, there was only one thing to do – break his head. When I got older, I realized that you shouldn’t do it that way. I realized that you’ve got to do it through education. Children are not to blame. It is the parents. How can a child know whether his playmate is an Italian, a Jew or Irish, unless the parents have discussed it in the privacy of their homes.
I think my greatest ambition in life is to pass on to others what I know.
I wish that one of these days somebody would learn to do [my art] so it doesn’t die where it is.
I would like to be remembered as a man who had a wonderful time living life, a man who had good friends, fine family – and I don’t think I could ask for anything more than that, actually.
You only live once, and the way I live, once is enough.
I believe in you and me. I’m like Albert Schweitzer and Bertrand Russell and Albert Einstein in that I have a respect for life–in any form. I believe in nature, in the birds, the sea, the sky, in everything I can see or that there is real evidence for. If these things are what you mean by God, then I believe in God.
I’m supposed to have a Ph.D. on the subject of women. But the truth is I’ve flunked more often than not. I’m very fond of women; I admire them. But, like all men, I don’t understand them.
Live every day like it’s your last.
Stay alive, stay active, and get as much practice as you can.
People often remark that I’m pretty lucky. Luck is only important in so far as getting the chance to sell yourself at the right moment. After that, you’ve got to have talent and know how to use it.
There are several things I think I would have done if I had the chance again. I would have been a little more patient about getting out into the world. I would have seen to it that I had a more formal education. I would have become an accomplished musician, in the sense that I would have studied formally, even if I never used it.
I feel sorry for people who don’t drink. When they wake up in the morning, that’s as good as they’re going to feel all day.
Rock ‘n Roll is the most brutal, ugly, desperate, vicious form of expression that has been my misfortune to hear.
I’m gonna live till I die.
When lip service to some mysterious deity permits bestiality on Wednesday and absolution on Sunday, cash me out.
Hell hath no fury like a hustler with a literary agent.
Fear is the enemy of logic. There is no more debilitating, crushing, self-defeating, sickening thing in the world–to an individual or to a nation.
Cock your hat – angles are attitudes.
Basically, I’m for anything that gets you through the night – be it prayer, tranquilizers or a bottle of Jack Daniels.
All day long, they lie in the sun, and when the sun goes down, they lie some more.
Don’t get even, get mad.
Throughout my career, if I have done anything, I have paid attention to every note and every word I sing – if I respect the song. If I cannot project this to a listener, I fail.
Never yawn in front of a lady.
Orange is the happiest color.
Oh, I just wish someone would try to hurt you so I could kill them for you.
I’m not one of those complicated, mixed-up cats. I’m not looking for the secret to life…. I just go on from day to day, taking what comes.
If I did half of what they say, I wouldn’t be here – I’d be in a jar at Harvard.
I like intelligent women. When you go out, it shouldn’t be a staring contest.
Too many times I’ve been asked to say something about friends who are gone – this is one of the hardest….Dean was my brother – not through blood, but through choice….He has been like the air I breathe – always there, always close by.
Fresh air makes me throw up. I can’t handle it. I’d rather be around three Denobili cigars blowing in my face all night.
The martial music of every side burned delinquent on the face of the earth.
Dare to wear the foolish clown face.
I don’t know what other singers feel when they articulate lyrics, but being an 18-karat manic-depressive and having lived a life of violent emotional contradictions, I have an over acute capacity for sadness as well as elation. I know what the cat who wrote the song is trying to say. I’ve been there – and back. I guess the audience feels it along with me. They can’t help it. Sentimentality, after all, is an emotion common to all humanity.
The best revenge is massive success.
Here’s to the confusion of our enemies!
