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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

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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
May
Universal
Exception
Believe
Thoughts
Believing
Way
Especially
Unknown
Make
Though
Opposite
Inexplicable
Never
Society
Impression
Singular
Men
Stills
Opposites
Stops
Women
Rule
Protest
Still
Sex
Privacy

More quotes by Giacomo Leopardi

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In all climates, under all skies, man's happiness is always somewhere else.
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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.
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The most solid pleasure in this life is the empty pleasure of illusion.
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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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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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No human trait deserves less tolerance in everyday life, and gets less, than intolerance.
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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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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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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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Ignorance is the greatest source of happiness.
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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.
Giacomo Leopardi
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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.
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Freedom is the dream you dream While putting thought in chains again --
Giacomo Leopardi
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Man is almost always as wicked as his needs require.
Giacomo Leopardi
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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.
Giacomo Leopardi
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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
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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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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.
Giacomo Leopardi
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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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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.
Giacomo Leopardi