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

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
Correct
Useful
Sense
May
Men
Harmful
Seldom

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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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.
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The surest way of concealing from others the boundaries of one s own knowledge is not to overstep them.
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
Giacomo Leopardi
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Ignorance is the greatest source of happiness.
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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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
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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 --
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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No human trait deserves less tolerance in everyday life, and gets less, than intolerance.
Giacomo Leopardi
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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.
Giacomo Leopardi
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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.
Giacomo Leopardi
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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
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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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In all climates, under all skies, man's happiness is always somewhere else.
Giacomo Leopardi
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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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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
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People are ridiculous only when they try or seem to be that which they are not.
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.
Giacomo Leopardi