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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

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Giacomo Leopardi
Age: 38 †
Born: 1798
Born: June 29
Died: 1837
Died: June 14
Essayist
Literary Critic
Philologist
Philosopher
Poet
Translator
Writer
Giacomo
conte Leopardi
Cosimo Papareschi
Giacomo Taldegardo Francesco di Sales Saverio Pietro Leopardi
Giàcomo Leopardi
Men
Age
Ordained
Learn
Vivid
Living
Stolen
Nature
Incapable
Become
Enjoyment
Reason
Reasons
Find
Shall
Beneficence
Live
Pleasure
Customary

More quotes by Giacomo Leopardi

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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.
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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.
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A dictionary can embrace only a small part of the vast tapestry of a language.
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The end of pain we take as happiness.
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The thought that really crushes us is the thought of the futility of life of which death is the visible manifestation.
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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.
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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.
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Ignorance is the greatest source of happiness.
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Everything since Homer has improved, except poetry.
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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.
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Irresolute men are sometimes very persistent in their undertakings, because if they give up their designs they would have to make a second resolution.
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We remember childhood as the fabulous years of our lives, and nations remember their childhood as fabulous years.
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Men seldom act from a correct sense of what may be harmful or useful to them.
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Man is almost always as wicked as his needs require.
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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.
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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
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Freedom is the dream you dream While putting thought in chains again --
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It's interesting to observe that almost all truly worthy men have simple manners, and that simple manners are almost always taken as a sign of little worth
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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.
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There's no greater sign of being a poor philosopher and wise man than wanting all of life to be wise and philosophical.
Giacomo Leopardi