Leopardi's "Pensieri"

Leopardi makes clear the difference between ancient and modern man: the ancients insisted that a man be good, the moderns demand that a man only seem good.

The book is aphoristic, not unlike Pascal's but a century and a half later (1830) than Pasca. I'm reading the edition translated by W.S. DiPiero (Oxford U. Press, 1984).

Reading the book helps me clean out my life, both attic and basement, showing me the top and bottom of the house I'm living in, slowing me down just enough so I can see what it might have been like to live in the ancient world while preserving the modernity I was born into.