Inspirational Quotations

Inspirational Quotes by Giacomo Leopardi (Italian Poet)

Conte Giacomo Leopardi (1798–1837,) fully Giacomo Taldegardo Francesco di Sales Saverio Pietro Leopardi, was an Italian romantic poet, scholar, philosopher, essayist, and philologist. He is believed to be a principal of literary romanticism. His critical writings, correspondence, philological studies, and notebooks of literary and philosophical reflections supplement his lyric poetry. Italians consider him one of their greatest-ever intellects.

Born in Recanati, Leopardi was a gifted child of noble parents. By 16, he had read all the Latin and Greek classics. He could also write French, Spanish, English, and Hebrew and had authored a commentary on the Hellenistic philosopher Plotinus. Although an invalid, Leopardi dedicated himself to literature, traveled widely, and lived successively in Bologna, Florence, Milan, and Pisa. In 1833, Leopardi accompanied his friend, the mason, Antonio Ranieri, to Naples and settled there.

Leopardi’s works, which reveal his pessimistic views on life, include lyrics, collected under the title Canti (1831; The Poems, 1893,) dialogues and essays classed as Operette Morali (1827; translated 1983,) Pensieri (7 vols., 1898-1900, ‘Thoughts’) and letters.

English translations of Leopardi’s works include James Thomson’s Essays, Dialogues, and Thoughts (1905,) R.C. Trevelyan’s Translations From Leopardi (1941,) and J.P. Barricelli’s Poems (1963.)

More: Wikipedia • READ: Works by Giacomo Leopardi

Children find everything in nothing, men find nothing in everything.
—Giacomo Leopardi
Topics: One liners, Children

The end of pain we take as happiness.
—Giacomo Leopardi
Topics: Blessings

No human trait deserves less tolerance in everyday life, and gets less, than intolerance.
—Giacomo Leopardi
Topics: Tolerance

You can be happy indeed if you have breathing space from pain.
—Giacomo Leopardi
Topics: Blessings

It’s not our disadvantages or shortcomings that are ridiculous, but rather the studious way we try to hide them and our desire to act as if they did not exist.
—Giacomo Leopardi
Topics: Awareness, Self-Knowledge

In all climates, under all skies, man’s happiness is always somewhere else.
—Giacomo Leopardi
Topics: Opportunities, Reality

I get up and I bless the light thin clouds and the first twittering of birds, and the breathing air and smiling face of the hills.
—Giacomo Leopardi
Topics: Gratitude

Everything is evil. I mean, everything that is, is wicked; every existing thing is an evil; everything exists for a wicked end. Existence is a wickedness and is ordained for wickedness. Evil is the end, the final purpose, of the universe…The only good is nonbeing; the only really good thing is the thing that is not, things that are not things; all things are bad.
—Giacomo Leopardi

He who has the courage to laugh is almost as much a master of the world as he who is ready to die.
—Giacomo Leopardi
Topics: Courage

Pleasure is always in the past or in the future, never in the present.
—Giacomo Leopardi

People are ridiculous only when they fly or seem to be that which they are not.
—Giacomo Leopardi
Topics: Aptness, Appropriateness

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