“I say that the world is an alliance of scoundrels against decent people, and of cowards against the generous.”

Original: Dico che il mondo è una lega di birbanti contro gli uomini da bene, e di vili contro i generosi. — A characteristically severe judgement on how self-interest can unite the unscrupulous against the honourable. · Pensieri, I, published posthumously in 1845 (Italian)

• Character
• Morality
• Society

“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

“Human beings are miserable by necessity, yet determined to believe they are miserable by accident.”

Original: Gli uomini sono miseri per necessità, e risoluti di credersi miseri per accidente. — A compact expression of Leopardi's belief that suffering belongs to the human condition rather than to circumstance alone. · Pensieri, XXXI, published posthumously in 1845 (Italian)

• Fate
• Humanity
• Suffering