Best Giovanni Quotes... (Phillip Hough)

"All of this talk about caaapitalism and sooocialism... I don't even know what these words mean!"

I think people often remember Giovanni as a great mind, but he was also hilarious! Just some funny memories that come to mind:

I was walking back to the JHU sociology department following a mini-conference on 'Rethinking African Development' with Giovanni, Beverly, and fellow grad student Corey Patterson. Giovanni, annoyed that the conversation had shifted to the potential for socialism in the region, was talking out his thoughts. He said, "All of this talk about caaapitalism and sooocialism... I don't even know what these words mean! You, Phil, you look like a nice guy. You must be a socialist. Corey (he laughed), I don't know about you. You must be a capitalist!"

I was in his office blabbing about my dissertation work on Colombia, about all of the bodies of literature I wanted to speak to, all of the work I wanted to attack, and so on and so forth. Giovanni just stood there looking at me for a long while, then said, "look, you don't need knowledge, you need wisdom." He then went on to talk about a Roman fable about a man who was set to fight three soldiers. Unable to defeat them at once, the man ran away, stopping to fight each, one at a time. I got the point.