Each day we lose something; that is, some illusions, which are all we have, perish or wane. Experience or truth daily deprive us of some portion of our possessions. We do not live except by losing. Man is born rich in everything, and as he grows he gets poorer, until in old age he finds himself with almost nothing. (329)

Leopardi, Giacomo, and Michael Caesar. Zibaldone. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2013.