"His future existence is materially very long and the vast empty space that he still has to cross horrifies him, especially if he compares it with the little way he has come with such difficulty. Faced with this consideration, a young man can become excessively afraid and desperate, and the future seems longer and more terrible than an eternity. What's more, his whole life consists in the future. His early years were no more than an introduction to life. So he was born without being meant to live. The young man feels mortal despair at the thought that he will pass this way only once, and that in his time on earth he will not enjoy life, will not live, and his unique existence will have been wasted and useless. Every moment of his youth that passes in this way seems an irreparable loss inflicted on an age that can never return."
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Original Language: English
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Sources
Giacomo Leopardi, trans. Kathleen Baldwin et al., Zibaldone (2013), [279–280]
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Philosophical_pessimism
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Philosophical pessimism
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