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
Two truths that most men will never believe: one that we know nothing, the other that we are nothing. Add the third, which depends a lot on the second: that there is nothing to hope for after death.
—Giacomo Leopardi
Topics: Logic
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
In all climates, under all skies, man’s happiness is always somewhere else.
—Giacomo Leopardi
Topics: Opportunities, Reality
People are ridiculous only when they fly or seem to be that which they are not.
—Giacomo Leopardi
Topics: Aptness, Appropriateness
No one can truthfully boast or say in anger: I cannot be unhappier than I am.
—Giacomo Leopardi
Death is not an evil, because it frees us from all evils, and while it takes away good things, it takes away also the desire for them. Old age is the supreme evil, because it deprives us of all pleasures, leaving us only the appetite for them, and it brings with it all sufferings. Nevertheless, we fear death, and we desire old age.
—Giacomo Leopardi
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
Children find everything in nothing, men find nothing in everything.
—Giacomo Leopardi
Topics: One liners, Children
It seems as though death were the essential aim of all things. That which has no existence cannot die; yet all that exists has proceeded from nothing. The final cause of existence is not happiness, for nothing is happy. It is true, living creatures seek this end in all their works, but none obtain it; and during all their life, ever deceiving, tormenting, and exerting themselves, they suffer indeed for no other purpose than to die.
—Giacomo Leopardi
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
Pleasure is always in the past or in the future, never in the present.
—Giacomo Leopardi
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
Wondering Whom to Read Next?
- Metastasio Italian Librettist
- Antonio Porchia Italian Poet
- Thomas Aquinas Italian Catholic Priest
- Italo Calvino Italian Novelist, Writer
- Dante Alighieri Italian Poet, Philosopher
- Petrarch Italian Scholar
- Benito Mussolini Italian Head of State
- Miguel de Unamuno Spanish Philosopher, Writer
- William Hazlitt English Essayist
- Moshe Chaim Luzzatto Italian Jewish Rabbi
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