104 Quotes by Giacomo Leopardi

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.

Che pensieri soavi,che speranze, che cori, o Silvia mia!Quale allor ci appariala vita umana e il fato!Quando sovviemmi di cotanta speme,un affetto mi premeacerbo e sconsolato,e tornami a doler di mia sventura.O natura, o natura,perché non rendi poiquel che prometti allor? perché di tantoinganni i figli tuoi?

Il più certo modo di celare agli altri i confini del proprio sapere, è di non trapassarli.

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

To that creature, being born, Its birthday is a day to mourn

As soon as the child is born, the mother who has just brought him into the world must console him, quiet his crying, and lighten the burden of the existence she has given him. And in truth it is only fitting that the good father and the good mother, in trying to console their children, correct as best they can, and ease, the damage they have done by procreating them. Good God! Why then is man born? And why does he procreate? To console those he has given birth to for having been born?

Being asked for what purpose he thought men were bom, he laughingly replied “ To realise how much better it were not to be born.

Being asked for what purpose he thought men were bom, he laughingly replied: " To realise how much better it were not to be born.

So my mind sinks in this immensity:And foundering is sweet in such a sea".