Without fraternity there are no men but containers of guts and a people made of containers does not exist, it is not people. Man is made up of fraternity, when we say man we only say fraternity. And a man – or people – who place themselves at the center of life, saying ‘I’, with strong slaps on the chest, are degraded apes (while the monkey is not).
(…) I write these things out of order. It is that my character is bad, it is not good, it is not tender, and immediately, when I meet presumption and cowardice that enter the territory of innocence and weakness as masters, I would like to take up arms, I would like to take a scimitar, and drop it of infected heads. But I would turn into one of them, and then the desire is gone.

Anna Maria Ortese, The Little People