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Written by the greatest Italian poet and thinker of the 19th century, these timeless musings contain immense philosophical and psychological insight. Ranging from mankind to nature, social order to the individual soul, they reveal a man of brilliance struggling to reconcile all that he sees around him.
160 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1830


For a long time I have denied the truth of the things I am about to say. Because, apart from the fact that they are utterly foreign to my nature (and we always tend to judge others by ourselves), I have never been inclined to hate people, but to love them. In the end experience has persuaded me, indeed almost forced me, to believe the truth of these things. And I am certain that those readers who happen to have had many and various dealings with human beings will admit the truth of what I am about to say. Everyone else will maintain that it is exaggerated, until experience, if they ever do have occasion to experience human society fully, brings them face to face with it. (1)
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I conclude, to make it plain, that a man cannot hope for, and consequently should not wish to win, the esteem, as they say, of society, but of a small number of people. As for others, he should be content to be completely ignored sometimes, and sometimes more or less despised, because this is a fate that cannot be escaped. (93)