To go on living and hoping, utterly contrary to reason

So it is mistaken to say, as some people do (the authors of La morale universelle, vol. 3),1 that suicide can happen only as a result of a kind of madness, since without it, it is impossible to lose hope entirely, etc. Actually, once religious beliefs are discounted, it is a happy and natural, though real and constant, state of madness to go on living and hoping, one utterly contrary to reason, which shows us all too clearly that there is no hope for us. (23 July 1820.)"

 (from "Zibaldone" by Giacomo Leopardi, )