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
real suffering purpose
But the real, tremendous truth is this: suffering serves no purpose whatever.
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 .
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.
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.
fun might our-words
We must never say, even in fun, that we are disheartened, because someone might take us at our word.
work men quality
A man succeeds in completing a work only when his qualities transcend that work.
dream work father
Work alone isn't enough for me and mine; we know how to break our backs, but the great dream Of my fathers was to be good at doing nothing.
reality action prison
Reality is a prison, where one vegetates and always will. All the rest - thought, action - is just a pastime, mental or physical. What counts then, is to come to grips with reality. The rest can go.
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.
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.
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.
thinking ego reason-why
The only reason why we are always thinking of our own ego is that we have to live with it more continuously than with anyone else's.