Leopardi's finest prose quotes (Zibaldone and Thoughts)
The top 3 according to 18 votes from people: Children find everything in nothing; men find nothing in everything. · Indecision is worse than despair. · I live, therefore I hope, is a perfectly correct syllogism.. (Updated Aug 2, 2025.)
"Children find everything in nothing, men find nothing in everything", patience as the most heroic virtue and boredom as the pure desire for happiness: the most quoted prose lines of Giacomo Leopardi, from the Zibaldone and the Thoughts.
Automatically translated (original in Italiano). See the original
Top 13
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1
Children find everything in nothing; men find nothing in everything.
Zibaldone, 527 (1821).
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2
Indecision is worse than despair.
Zibaldone, 245 (1820).
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3
I live, therefore I hope, is a perfectly correct syllogism.
Zibaldone, 4145 (1824).
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4
Patience is the most heroic of virtues precisely because it has no appearance of heroism.
Zibaldone, 112 (1820).
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5
The more one loves oneself, the less one can love.
Zibaldone, 1723 (1821).
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6
Italians have no morals: they have customs.
Zibaldone, 2923 (1823).
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7
Men are ashamed not of the injuries they inflict, but of those they receive.
Thoughts (Pensieri), LVII.
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8
Boredom belongs only to those in whom the spirit is something.
Thoughts (Pensieri), LXVII.
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9
I say the world is a league of scoundrels against honest men, of cowards against the generous.
Thoughts (Pensieri), I.
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10
Boredom is the desire for happiness left, so to speak, pure.
Zibaldone, 3715 (1823).
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11
The most effective way to become famous is to make the world believe you already are.
Zibaldone, 4153 (1825).
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12
The most solid pleasure in this life is the vain pleasure of illusions.
Zibaldone, 51.
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13
People are only ridiculous when they want to seem or be what they are not.
Thoughts (Pensieri), XCIX.
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