Giacomo Leopardi

Italy
29 Jun 1798 // 14 Jun 1837
Poet / Philosopher

Majority and Minority

In abstruse matters the minority always sees better than the majority, while the majority sees better in things that are evident. It is absurd in questions of metaphysics to bring into play what is called the general consensus, and no one attaches any importance to that consensus in physical matters, which are subject to the senses, as for example in the matter of the movement of the earth, and a thousand others. On the contrary, however, it is a thing which is foolhardy, dangerous, and in the long run useless, to oppose the opinion of the majority in civil affairs.

Giacomo Leopardi, in 'Thoughts'
Search

 

On Anger: "For every minute you remain angry, you give up sixty seconds of peace of mind."
Essays
On Destiny: "Our destiny exercises its influence over us even when, as yet, we have not learned its nature: it is our future that lays down the law of our today."
Human, All Too Human
On Friendship: "A crowd is not company; and faces are but a gallery of pictures; and talk but a tinkling cymbal, where there is no love."
Essays