Giacomo Leopardi Quotes - Page 2

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• Every man remembers his childhood as a kind of mythical age, just as every nation's childhood is its mythical age.

  Giacomo Leopardi

  Men, Childhood, Age

  16 Copy quote

• Nature, with her customary beneficence, has ordained that man shall not learn how to live until the reasons for living are stolen from him, that he shall find no enjoyment until he has become incapable of vivid pleasure.

  Giacomo Leopardi

  Men, Age, Vivid

  Giacomo Leopardi (1987). “Leopardi: Poems and Prose”, Praeger Pub Text

  13 Copy quote

• 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

  Desire, Trying, Way

  11 Copy quote

• The old man, especially if he is in society in the privacy of his thoughts, though he may protest the opposite, never stops believing that, through some singular exception of the universal rule, he can in some unknown and inexplicable way still make an impression on women.

  Giacomo Leopardi

  Sex, Believe, Men

  Giacomo Leopardi, Ángel Flores (1966). “Poems and prose”

  10 Copy quote

• Since the world never faults a man who refuses to yield...it is generally recognized that weak men live in obedience to the world's will, while the strong obey only their own.

  Giacomo Leopardi

  Strong, Men, Yield

  12 Copy quote

• The commonplace expression that life is nothing but a play is verified above all in this: the world speaks absolutely consistently in one way and acts absolutely consistently in another.

  Giacomo Leopardi

  Expression, Play, World

  12 Copy quote

• If the best company is that which we leave feeling most satisfied with ourselves, it follows that it is the company we leave most bored.

  Giacomo Leopardi

  Bored, Feelings, Satisfied

  Giacomo Leopardi, Ángel Flores (1966). “Poems and prose”

  13 Copy quote

• Men seldom act from a correct sense of what may be harmful or useful to them.

  Giacomo Leopardi

  Men, May

  11 Copy quote

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

  Giacomo Leopardi

  Way, Boundaries, Concealing

  Giacomo Leopardi (1987). “Leopardi: Poems and Prose”, Praeger Pub Text

  16 Copy quote

• A dictionary can embrace only a small part of the vast tapestry of a language.

  Giacomo Leopardi

  Language, Embrace, Dictionary

  16 Copy quote

• The world laughs at things it would really prefer to admire, and like Aesop's fox it criticizes things it covets.

  Giacomo Leopardi

  Laughing, World, Foxes

  20 Copy quote

• If content with himself and mankind, a man is never harsh or curt.

  Giacomo Leopardi

  Men, Harsh, Mankind

  13 Copy quote

• 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.

  Giacomo Leopardi

  Memories, Quality, Remember

  Giacomo Leopardi (2002). “Thoughts: And, The Broom [or The Flower of the Desert]”, Hesperus Press

  9 Copy quote

• I may be wrong, but it seems rare in our age to find a widely praised person whose own mouth is not the source of that praise.

  Giacomo Leopardi

  Age, Mouths, May

  21 Copy quote

• The greater part of the people we assign to educate our sons we know for certain are not educated. Yet we do not doubt that they can give what they have not received, a thing which cannot be otherwise acquired.

  Giacomo Leopardi

  Teaching, Son, People

  Giacomo Leopardi (1987). “Leopardi: Poems and Prose”, Praeger Pub Text

  13 Copy quote

• Of men eternally dear! happy indeed
  If you have breathing-space
  From pain: blessed all the more
  If death should heal you of the pain you fear!

  Giacomo Leopardi

  Pain, Breathing Space, Ifs

  "Leopardi: Poems and Prose".

  9 Copy quote

• The artisan or scientist or the follower of whatever discipline who has the habit of comparing himself not with other followers but with the discipline itself will have a lower opinion of himself, the more excellent he is.

  Giacomo Leopardi

  Discipline, Followers, Opinion

  Giacomo Leopardi (1987). “Leopardi: Poems and Prose”, Praeger Pub Text

  12 Copy quote

• 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.

  Giacomo Leopardi

  Men, Evil, Sorrow

  4 Copy quote

• Man is doomed either squander his youth, which is the only time he has to store provisions for the coming years and provide for his own well-being, or to spend his youth procuring pleasures in advance for that time of life when he will be too old to enjoy them.

  Giacomo Leopardi

  Men, Years, Youth

  11 Copy quote

• Irresolute men are sometimes very persistent in their undertakings, because if they give up their designs they would have to make a second resolution.

  Giacomo Leopardi

  Giving Up, Persistence, Men

  23 Copy quote

• Men are ready to suffer anything from others or from heaven itself, provided that, when it comes to words, they are untouched.

  Giacomo Leopardi

  Men, Heaven, Suffering

  Giacomo Leopardi (1987). “Leopardi: Poems and Prose”, Praeger Pub Text

  15 Copy quote

• We remember childhood as the fabulous years of our lives, and nations remember their childhood as fabulous years.

  Giacomo Leopardi

  Years, Childhood, Fabulous

  4 Copy quote

• The artist's conception of his art or the scientist's of his science is usually as great as his conception of his own worth is small.

  Giacomo Leopardi

  Art, Artist, Scientist

  9 Copy quote

• Death is not evil, for it frees man from all ills and takes away his desires along with desire's rewards.

  Giacomo Leopardi

  Men, Evil, Desire

  7 Copy quote

• I find it awfully difficult to determine if the habit of talking about oneself at length runs contrary to the basic rules of propriety, or if instead the man exempt from this vice is rare.

  Giacomo Leopardi

  Running, Men, Talking

  10 Copy quote

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