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
men humiliation mourn
When a man mourns for someone who has played him false, it is not for love of her, but for his own humiliation at not having deserved her trust.
men another-man
When a woman marries she belongs to another man; and when she belongs to another man there is nothing more you can say to her.
what-matters suffering world
A consoling thought: what matters is not what we do, but the spirit in which we do it. Others suffer too; so much so that there is nothing in the world but suffering; the problem is simply to keep a clear conscience.
love-is desire desire-for-knowledge
Love is desire for knowledge.
real suffering purpose
But the real, tremendous truth is this: suffering serves no purpose whatever.
girl stupid loss
It is stupid to grieve for the loss of a girl friend: you might never have met her, so you can do without her.
fate destiny ifs
It is not that things happen to each of us according to his fate, but that he interprets what has happened, if he has power to do so, according to his sense of his own destiny .
art strong sex
In fact a man in love or one consumed with hatred creates symbols for himself, as a superstitious man does, from a passion of conferring uniqueness on things or persons. A man who knows nothing of symbols is one of Dante's sluggards. This is why art mirrors itself in primitive rites or strong passions, seeking for symbols, revolving round the primitive taste for savagery, for what is irrational (blood and sex).
generations next problem
The problems that agitate one generation are exstinguished for the next, not because they have been solved but because the general lack of interest sweeps them away.
people littles care
We care so little of other people than even Christianity urges us to do good for the love of God .
writing poetry making-love
Remember, writing poetry is like making love: one will never know whether one's own pleasure is shared.
mean home knowing
You need a village, if only for the pleasure of leaving it. A village means that you are not alone, knowing that in the people, the trees, the earth, there is something that belongs to you, waiting for you when you are not there.
lying mean hiding
But here's the worst part: the trick to life lies in hiding from those we hold most dear how much they mean to is; if not, we'd lose them.
son generations artistic
A work settles nothing, just as the labor of a whole generation settles nothing. Sons, and the morrow, always start afresh.