The Leopard (2004) - Quotes

The Taste of Love and Sacrifice

Angelica Sedara: [They kiss] Listen to me. Concetta is right. To marry him after loving you would be like drinking water after tasting...

Tancredi Falconeri: Tasting what?

Angelica Sedara: [They kiss again] Marsala.

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The Reluctance of Confession

Father Pirrone: Is Your Excellency here for confession?

Don Fabrizio Corbera: Confession? It's not Saturday.

Father Pirrone: Listen to me. Come to confession.

Don Fabrizio Corbera: There's no need. You know it all already.

Father Pirrone: The power of confession lies not only in telling our sins, but in repentance.

Don Fabrizio Corbera: I know. I know! What would you have of me? I'm a vigorous man. I can't find satisfaction with a woman who crosses herself in bed before every embrace, and can only say "Gesummaria" afterwards. I've had seven children with her and I've never seen her navel. Is that right? I ask you. *She's* the sinner!

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Voting Tactics and Political Pressure in Donnafugata

Don Fabrizio Corbera: And you, Don Ciccio, how did you vote on the 21st?

Don Fabrizio Corbera: What are you afraid of? There's no one else here but us, the wind, the dogs.

Don Francisco Ciccio Tumeo: Excuse me, Excellency, but that question is useless. You know that everyone in Donnafugata voted, voted yes'. They said you, yourself, advised those who couldn't decide to vote like that.

Don Fabrizio Corbera: I did, indeed. So, you voted yes', hmm...

Don Francisco Ciccio Tumeo: [walks up to the Prince, and then walks away] No, Excellency! I voted absolutely no'! No, I swear I voted no'! I know, Excellency, I know what you told me: necessity, unity and opportunity, Excellency. And you might be right, afterall. Politics I know nothing about, I leave that to all the others. But Ciccio Tumeo cannot be walked on! An obscure artist... poor and miserable, with holes in his pants, maybe. But benefits he's received, I promise you, he'll never forget! As you know, Excellency, it was Queen Isabella, of Spain, who was Dutchess of Calabria then, who made me study, and allowed me to be who I wanted: Organist of the Mother Church, honored by the benevolence of Your Excellency, and be a respected citizen. The years we were in terrible need, when my poor mother sent a petition up to her court, the money arrived to help us, sure as death every month! And if, today, these holy Kings and lovely Queens, were looking down from Heaven... what would they say? Would they feel that Don Ciccio Tumeo betrayed them? No, Excellency, no! Fortunately they know the truth in paradise.

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Change is Necessary to Maintain the Status Quo

Tancredi Falconeri: If we want things to stay as they are, things will have to change.

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Critique of Donna Bastiana's Character

Don Francisco Ciccio Tumeo: It seems Donna Bastiana is a kind of animal. She can't read, write, or tell time. She can barely talk. She's even incapable of loving her own daughter. Good for bed, and that's all. But what can you expect? You know whose daughter she is? She's the daughter of one of your peasants from Runci. His name was Peppe Giunta. He was so filthy and savage that everyone called him Peppe Cowshit.

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Humanity in a Changing World

Don Fabrizio Corbera: We're not blind in spirit, Father. We're just human beings in a changing world.

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The Transience of Love and Passion

Don Fabrizio Corbera: Yes, love, of course! Fire and flames for a year, ashes for thirty. I too know what love is.

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Change is necessary for continuity.

Don Fabrizio Corbera: Things will have to change in order that they remain the same.

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Innocence of Bodies vs. Naked Souls

Don Fabrizio Corbera: [to Father Pirrone] You're used to naked souls. You should know that naked bodies are far more innocent.

A Disillusioned Perspective on Politics

Don Fabrizio Corbera: I belong to an unlucky generation, astride between two worlds and ill-at-ease in both. And what is more, I am completely without illusions. Now, what would the Senate do with me, an inexperienced legislator who lacks the faculty for self-deception, an essential requisite for wanting to guide others. No, I cannot lift a finger in politics. It would be bitten off.

Class Transition in Society

Don Fabrizio Corbera: You know what is happening in our country? Nothing... simply an imperceptible replacement of one class for another. The middle class doesn't want to destroy us. It simply wants to take our place... and very gently.

Critique of Vanity and Stagnation

Don Fabrizio Corbera: [of the Sicilians] They never want to improve. They think themselves perfect. Their vanity is greater than their misery.

A Reflection on Sicilian Desires and Death

Don Fabrizio Corbera: Sleep, my dear Chevalley, eternal sleep, that is what Sicilians want. And they will always resent anyone who tries to awaken them, even to bring them the most wonderful of gifts. And, between ourselves, I doubt very strongly whether this new Kingdom has very many gifts for us in its luggage. All Sicilian expression, even the most violent, is really a wish for death. Our sensuality, wish for oblivion. Our knifings and shootings, a hankering after extinction. Our laziness, our spiced and drugged sherbets, a desire for voluptuous immobility, that is... for death again.

Reflections on Power and Identity

Don Fabrizio Corbera: We were the leopards, the lions, those who take our place will be jackals and sheep, and the whole lot of us - leopards, lions, jackals and sheep - will continue to think ourselves the salt of the earth.