2 Quotes by Joseph Luzzi

In the United States, death is something to avoid talking about and to treat as a disease that can be cured with the right diet and workout routine. In Italy, death is woven into the fabric of everyday life.

We all know, he writes, “that laws without customs are not enough,” and that unlike other civic nations, Italians lack “great moral principles.” In Leopardi’s view, this resistance to collective thinking made Italians the most cynical of peoples, incapable of believing in the public good and unwilling to sacrifice their private concerns.