Yair’s Reviews > Prison notebooks - Gramsci > Status Update

"Another point which needs to be defined and developed is the “dual perspective” in political action and in national life. The dual perspective can present itself on various levels, from the most elementary to the most complex; but these can all theoretically be reduced to two fundamental levels, corresponding to the dual nature of Machiavelli's Centaur — half-animal and half-human."

-Gramsci, Antonio (pg. 187)

"Why the Moderates were bound to gain the upper hand as far as the majority of intellectuals were concerned."

-Gramsci, Antonio. Prison Notebooks (pg. 115)

— although it has always been the right-wing parties who have shown the worst demagogy, and who have often (like Napoleon III in France) appealed to the dregs of society. [1934: 1st version 1929-30.]

-Gramsci, Antonio. Prison Notebooks (pg. 103)

"He did not hesitate to plunge the South and the Islands into a terrifying commercial crisis, so long as he was able to reinforce the industry which could give the country a real independence, and which would expand the cadres of the dominant social group: this is the policy of manufacturing the manufacturer."

Gramsci, Antonio. Prison notebooks - Gramsci (p. 80). Lebooks Editora. Kindle Edition.

But born into a backward peasant environment and deprived of either an adequate or a continuous education, Gramsci's success in school and university despite constant ill-health, under-nourishment and over-work was a triumph of intellectual purpose. Something of his individual experience is thus carried over into his repeated emphasis on learning as work.

Gramsci, Antonio. Prison notebooks - Gramsci (p. 35).

"All men are intellectuals, one could therefore say: but not all men have in society the function of intellectuals."

Gramsci, Antonio. Prison notebooks - Gramsci (p. 16). Lebooks Editora. Kindle Edition.