“Man is never so unhappy as he seems, nor so happy as he imagines.”

A widely attributed translation from the Zibaldone, though wording varies considerably between editions · Zibaldone, as commonly translated

• Despair
• Joy
• Truth

“Words like "far away" and "ancient" are intensely poetic and pleasing because they awaken vast, indefinite, indeterminate and hazy ideas.”

Original: Le parole lontano, antico e simili sono poeticissime e piacevoli, perché destano idee vaste e indefinite e non determinabili e confuse. — A concise statement of Leopardi's poetics of vagueness, distance and imaginative suggestion. · Zibaldone, entry 1789, 25 September 1821 (Italian)

• Imagination
• Language
• Poetry

“Death is not an evil, because it frees a person from all evils and, together with life's good things, takes away desires.”

Original: La morte non è un male: perché libera l’uomo da tutti i mali, e insieme coi beni gli toglie i desiderii. — Leopardi's stark philosophical view of death as the ending not only of suffering but also of desire. · Pensieri, VI, published posthumously in 1845 (Italian)

• Death
• Desire
• Suffering