Perhaps his general ill health was to blame but there is no doubt that Giacomo Taldegardo Francesco di Sales Saverio Pietro Leopardi had a rather bleak outlook on life.
Described by Schopenhauer as being entirely imbued and penetrated with misery, the Italian poet’s pessimistic frame of mind can be seen in quotation after quotation. A few examples in English would be:
In all climates, under all skies, man’s happiness is always somewhere else.
And…
You can be happy indeed if you have breathing space from pain.
His contribution to the Sugar Sachet Spanish series is in the same vein…
El odio a nuestros semejantes es mayor con los más allegados.
But Leopardi was more than just an old misery guts. He came out with one of the most positive and true statements ever made:
Enjoy every minute. There’s plenty of time to be dead.
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