Cesare Pavese
Cesare Pavese
Cesare Pavesewas an Italian poet, novelist, literary critic and translator. He is widely considered among the major authors of the 20th century in his home country...
NationalityItalian
ProfessionPoet
Date of Birth9 September 1908
CountryItaly
Cesare Pavese quotes about
smoking smoke
Life without smoking is like the smoke without the roast.
lying ocean sea
What world lies beyond that stormy sea I do not know, but every ocean has a distant shore, and I shall reach it.
whole-life can-do happens
It had to happen to you, to concentrate your whole life on one point, and then discover that you can do anything except live at that point.
reality imagination humans
Human imagination is immensely poorer than reality.
art opposites two
We want Realism's wealth of experience and Symbolism's depth of feeling. All art is a problem of balance between two opposites.
revenge men generous-man
There is no finer revenge than that which others inflict on your enemy. Moreover, it has the advantage of leaving you the role of a generous man.
decision action reason
A decision, an action, are infallible omens of what we shall do another time, not for any vague, mystic, astrological reason but because they result from an automatic reaction that will repeat itself.
civilization age generations
Generations do not age. Every youth of any period, any civilization, has the same possibilities as always.
fun boys remember
I've discovered nothing. but do you remember how much we talked when we were boys? We talked just for the fun of it. We knew very well it was only talk, but still we enjoyed it.
waking corpses left
A corpse is what's left after waking too often.
hate hatred body
Hate is always a clash between our spirit and someone else's body.
two failing commit
We commit two wrongs when we fail to right a wrong.
mean fighting air
Suffering is by no means a privilege, a sign of nobility, a reminder of God. Suffering is a fierce, bestial thing, commonplace, uncalled for, natural as air. It is intangible; no one can grasp it or fight against it; it dwells in time - is the same thing as time; if it comes in fits and starts, that is only so as to leave the sufferer more defenseless during the moments that follow, those long moments when one relives the last bout of torture and waits for the next.
patience waiting occupation
Waiting is still an occupation. It is having nothing to wait for that is terrible.