“We were the Leopards, the Lions; those who'll take our place will be little jackals, hyenas; and the whole lot of us, Leopards, jackals, and sheep, we'll all go on thinking ourselves the salt of the earth.”
Noi fummo i Gattopardi, i Leoni; quelli che ci sostituiranno saranno gli sciacalletti, le iene; e tutti quanti Gattopardi, sciacalli e pecore, continueremo a crederci il sale della terra.
Page 152
Il Gattopardo (1958)
Original
Noi fummo i Gattopardi, i Leoni: chi ci sostituirà saranno gli sciacalletti, le iene; e tutti quanti, gattopardi, sciacalli e pecore, continueremo a crederci il sale della terra.
Il Gattopardo
Variant: Noi fummo i Gattopardi, i Leoni; quelli che ci sostituiranno saranno gli sciacalletti, le iene; e tutti quanti Gattopardi, sciacalli e pecore, continueremo a crederci il sale della terra.
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Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa 9
Sicilian writer and prince 1896–1957Related quotes
“To live like a lion for a day is far better than to live for a hundred years like a jackal.”
As quoted in Encyclopedia of Asian History (1988) Vol. 4, p. 104
Variants:
It is far better to live like a lion for a day than to live like a jackal for a hundred years.
It is far better to live like a tiger for a day than to live like a jackal for a hundred years.
Variant mentioned in Tipu Sultan : A Study in Diplomacy and Confrontation (1982) by B. Sheikh Ali, p. 329
"Leopards at Knole" p. 143
Collected Poems (1933)
“At the top of the mountain we are all snow leopards.”
Source: Kingdom of Fear: Loathsome Secrets of a Star-Crossed Child in the Final Days of the American Century
“we only asked for leopards to guard
our thinning dreams.”
Source: The People Look Like Flowers at Last
Address to the United Nations (1964)
“Democracy is the worship of jackals by jackasses.”
“[The] swarming, grunting masses of jackals…”
On investigative journalists:
"The world according to Conrad Black", 2007