“All is evil, all is terrible, all is almost without remedy, all is such that a sensible man can do nothing but weep over it.”Giacomo Leopardi · Zibaldone · 1832 · p. 4174
Whoever sees clearly that suffering is the rule, not the exception, can only weep.
Leopardi is not describing a hard patch but a conclusion drawn from years of observation: nature, history, and society produce suffering systematically, not accidentally. The mechanism is simple — human desires are boundless while reality always frustrates them. A sensible person, meaning one who refuses comforting illusions, is left with weeping as the only honest response. Think of someone who loses health, then work, then hope, and finds that no advice changes the underlying facts.
Leopardi does not ask you to suffer more, but to stop lying about suffering. For him, weeping is not weakness but a form of honesty: the eye that sees clearly waters, just as skin touching fire burns. Think of a friend whom everyone tells it will all be fine, though he knows his illness cannot be cured. What helps him more: another empty promise, or someone who sits beside him and simply admits things are hard? Here is the step forward: if pain is real and systematic, the right response is not denying it but finding a stance that can bear it. What might such a way of living look like, one that rests on no illusions?
Why it matters It helps when you push back against forced optimism around you and want permission to acknowledge real pain without being dismissed as a pessimist.