“Enthusiasm and inspiration, essential to poetry, are not lasting things.”

Original: L’entusiasmo l’ispirazione, essenziali alla poesia, non sono cose durevoli. — Leopardi recognises poetic inspiration as an intense but necessarily temporary state. · Zibaldone, entry 4372, September 1828 (Italian)

• Creativity
• Inspiration
• Poetry

“The poet does not imitate nature; rather, nature speaks within him and through his mouth.”

Original: Il poeta non imita la natura: ben è vero che la natura parla dentro di lui e per la sua bocca. — Poetry is presented not as mechanical imitation but as an instinctive expression of nature working through the poet. · Zibaldone, entry 4372, 10 September 1828 (Italian)

• Creativity
• Nature
• Poetry