How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #7
[But] from that moment there began, for him and his family, that process of continual refining which in the course of three generations transforms innocent peasants into defenseless gentry. (4.5)
As Lampedusa tells us, Don Calogero doesn't realize what he's getting into when his daughter marries Tancredi. Over time, her life of luxury and idleness will make her family just like the Salinas. They'll all get totally lazy and complacent, and they'll end up losing everything to more competitive people. It's a good point to make, but Lampedusa is also kind of showing off the fact that he knows everything that'll happen for a hundred years after this story.
Quote #8
"I am a member of the old ruling class, inevitably compromised with the Bourbon regime, and tied to it by chains of decency if not of affection." (4.93)
When offered a position as a senator in the new Italy, Fabrizio refuses because he's just not competitive enough to muck around with all of Italy's social climbers. He'd just as soon get out of the game altogether and fade into the background of history.
Quote #9
"They're just different; perhaps they appear so strange to us because they have reached a stage toward which all those who are not saints are moving, that of indifference to earthly goods through surfeit." (5.19)
For Father Pirrone, aristocrats are like a completely different type of human. They have no interest in money or property, but only because they've never lived without these things. That's like standing on a boat while someone drowns and saying to him, "Meh, oxygen is overrated."