Quotes Out Loud
Business Series presents
Gianni Agnelli
(Audio Read Acted Quotes Out Loud)
Music by Scott Buckley – www.scottbuckley.com.au
A thing done well can be done better
I’ve known faithful husbands who were really bad husbands and I’ve known unfaithful husbands who were very good husbands. I don’t think the two things go necessarily together
There are three phases in building up a group like ours: the time of strength, the time of privilege and the time of vanity. In my opinion, only the first one counts. I don’t want the others to exist
I don’t much like taking stock, and especially I don’t like the past except inasmuch as it fixes our identity. I love the future and I’m fond of young people. My whole life has consisted of betting on the future
Everybody’s a playboy. Everybody tries to be one, some manage it, others don’t
A boss who doesn’t expect a company to make profits is a very bad boss
A passion for art grows with maturity. When I was a child, my father took me to visit museum because he felt that beautiful things could educate, and that taste became refined from childhood onwards, and he was right
There is an aesthetic taste. The mere pleasure of seeing a work of art. It’s not seeking to possess it, but the desire to admire a work of creation. In my life I’ve had a lot of joy from observing and studying these works. I now hope that many other people will want to share with me this feeling and this desire.
I like beautiful things that are well made. I even believe aesthetics are equivalent to ethics. Something that is beautiful is ethical, and unethical things aren’t beautiful—from tax dodging to doing things in an underhand way.
Italy swallows everything, its strength lies in the spinelessness of the authorities, in the pliability of politicians, in the capacity of the Italians to adapt. It’s a mattress, the Italian system. Pasolini would have said it’s a “ricotta”. Or, if you prefer, flectar non frangar. And we, natives of Turin, have always felt rather like foreigners in our homeland, for the very reason that we are a mountain people. Turin reminds one of the old garrison towns – duties before rights, , the air is cold and the people get up early and go to bed early, Antifascism is a serious matter, and so is work, and profits, too
You can do anything, but you can’t leave the family
Everything I’ve got, I’ve inherited. My grandfather did it all. I owe everything to the right of ownership and the right of inheritance; I’ve added the duty of responsibility to that
My grandfather, the senator, had given me the go-ahead, telling me that I could enjoy myself for a few years – drop out – before becoming a serious person. So I rejoined my friends on the international scene, in Saint Moritz, New York, Paris and on the Côte d’Azur. We used to have great times at all-night parties, on my yacht and in our villa at Beaulieu. Of course, there were beautiful girls there. But at that time there were two categories of men around: those who talked about women and those who women talked to, very intimately. There were actresses, real ladies and others who were only half-way ladies
My sister Suni was my real friend, perhaps because she’s the closest to me in age. And my sister Clara, too. The others were younger, but then I became great friends with Umberto as well. We understand each other immediately, even before we speak. That’s rare, you know, between brothers
I’ve always been a devoted husband, but if I were to claim that I’ve always been a faithful husband, I would be telling a lie
Marella? We’ve been together for a lifetime. At that point, the other person becomes a part of you; how can you say you’re friends? It’s more, much more, it’s a piece of yourself.
There is nothing more beautiful than a beautiful woman
Oh, I’ve certainly never been short of pleasure. Do you know what real pleasure is? A creative act. A pleasure without creativity is dead boring
