“Children find everything in nothing, men find nothing in everything.”
Source: Zibaldone (2013) trans. Kathleen Baldwin et al., [527] ISBN 978-0374296827
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Giacomo Leopardi 18
Italian poet, philosopher and writer 1798–1837Related quotes
Draft of letter to Richard Sassoon (December 1955), quoted in Joyce Carol Oates, "Raising Lady Lazarus," The New York Times (2000-11-05) http://www.nytimes.com/books/00/11/05/reviews/001105.05oatest.html
The Unabridged Journals of Sylvia Plath (2000)
Variant: Perhaps when we find ourselves wanting everything, it is because we are dangerously close to wanting nothing.
“[ There is a remedy for everything, could men find it. ]”
Jacula Prudentum (1651)
Rich Dad Poor Dad: What the Rich Teach Their Kids About Money-That the Poor and the Middle Class Do Not!
“In general, those who govern children forgive nothing in them, but everything in themselves.”
D'ordinaire, ceux qui gouvernent les enfants ne leur pardonnent rien, et se pardonnent tout à eux-mêmes.
Traité de l'éducation des filles, ch. 5, cited from De l'éducation des filles, dialogues des morts et opuscules divers (Paris: Firmin Didot, 1857) p. 15; translation from Selections from the Writings of Fénelon (Boston: Hilliard, Gray, Little and Wilkins, 1829) p. 137. (1687).
Source: The Diving Pool: Three Novellas
“We shall find God in everything alike, and find God always alike in everything.”
Quoted in Geary's Guide to the World's Great Aphorists (2007) by James Geary, p. 232
“All men are warriors. And life for everything in our universe is nothing but war.”
Source: The Wild (1995), p. 81
Source: The Dream of a Ridiculous Man (1877), V
Context: A dream! What is a dream? And is not our life a dream? I will say more. Suppose that this paradise will never come to pass (that I understand), yet I shall go on preaching it. And yet how simple it is: in one day, in one hour everything could be arranged at once! The chief thing is to love others like yourself, that's the chief thing, and that's everything; nothing else is wanted — you will find out at once how to arrange it all. And yet it's an old truth which has been told and retold a billion times — but it has not formed part of our lives! The consciousness of life is higher than life, the knowledge of the laws of happiness is higher than happiness — that is what one must contend against. And I shall. If only everyone wants it, it can be arranged at once.
“I find nothing so painful as having to lead men.”
Je ne trouve rien de si pénible que d'avoir à mener des hommes.
in his December 29 1816 letter to his uncle Léonor Mérimée, in [Œuvres complètes d'Augustin Fresnel, Imprimerie impériale, 1866, http://books.google.com/books?id=3QgAAAAAMAAJ, xviii]