Quotes by Giacomo Leopardi

“Real misanthropes are not found in solitude, but in the world; since it is experience of life, and not philosophy, which produces real hatred of mankind”

“Death is not evil, for it frees man from all ills and takes away his desires along with desires rewards. Old age is the supreme evil, for it deprives man of all pleasures while allowing his appetites to remain, and it brings with it every possible sorrow. Yet men fear death and desire old age.”

“People are ridiculous only when they try or seem to be that which they are not”

“No one is so completely disenchanted with the world, or knows it so thoroughly, or is so utterly disgusted with it, that when it begins to smile upon him he does not become partially reconciled to it”

“No human trait deserves less tolerance in everyday life, and gets less, than intolerance”

“There are some centuries which - apart from everything else - in the art and other disciplines presume to remake everything because they know how to make nothing.”

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.

Freedom is the dream you dreamWhile putting thought in chains again --

The surest way of concealing from others the boundaries of ones own knowledge is not to overstep them.

He who travels much has this advantage over others – that the things he remembers soon become remote, so that in a short time they acquire the vague and poetical quality which is only given to other things by time. He who has not traveled at all has this disadvantage – that all his memories are of things present somewhere, since the places with which all his memories are concerned are present.

Seated here in contemplations lost, my thought discovers vaster space beyond, supernal silence and unfathomed peace

He who has the courage to laugh is almost as much the master of the world as he who is ready to die.

The end of pain we take as happiness.

You can be happy indeed if you have breathing space from pain.

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.

In all climates under all skies mans happiness is always somewhere else.

People are ridiculous only when they try or seem to be that which they are not.

Its 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.

Real misanthropes are not found in solitude, but in the world; since it is experience of life, and not philosophy, which produces real hatred of mankind.

No one is so completely disenchanted with the world, or knows it so thoroughly, or is so utterly disgusted with it, that when it begins to smile upon him he does not become partially reconciled to it.