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How can we talk about the system born of the Enlightenment as the best of all possible worlds, when we all know that communism and Nazism are also children of the Enlightenment? We can even say that they are degenerate children, fine: but when we have historical evidence showing us that there are no optimal systems, from what perspective can we continue down this path?

— Franco Cardini

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More quotes by Franco Cardini

It is dignity that forms the basis of authentic and non-abstract equality: a possible and concrete equality, since absolute and perfect equality does not exist and, if it did, it would be horrible.

In the festival [...] the arcane becomes everyday, the mystery becomes visible. Who said there is no longer any place for myth?

We have no scientific reason to argue that one system is better than another, unless we rely on historical determinism or the law of the jungle, whereby the winner is right because he wins.

I owe my love for the Middle Ages first and foremost to Joan of Arc.

When the idea of national unity was chosen in the nineteenth century, the identity of the peninsula, which had always been polycentric, was not respected. Naples never referred to Italy, but to the Mediterranean and Europe. The Neapolitans called themselves “regnicoli” (subjects of the kingdom), never Italians, and they were not.

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Quote text and notes from Wikiquote: Franco Cardini (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.