“
"The Monarchy made Italy." "Is she alone, alone? And how did he do it? Sponte or pushes? With victories, or by dint of defeats? And what is this Italy of his? Where is the glory, the laurel and the iron that your Leopardi was looking for sixty years ago? Do you know about it? We are the last of the great nations, an inflated frog on the verge of cracking, like the one in the fairy tale. Theoretically, philosophically, you will not tell me that the reign of one man over all his fellows is the ideal. The ideal, if you are an idealist, is quite the opposite, it is the social republic, equality and the agreement of all. Utopia is fine, and even those who support it know it; but a generous utopia, not unpleasant resignation, like ours. Generous and dangerous, you mean? Go there, for the world has not fallen and will not fall, no matter how many reforms and revolutions are made..."
— FEDERICO DE ROBERTO