A man is never completely alone in this world. At the worst, he has the company of a boy, a youth, and by and by a grown man – the one he used to be.
CESARE PAVESEA man is never completely alone in this world. At the worst, he has the company of a boy, a youth, and by and by a grown man – the one he used to be.
CESARE PAVESEWriting is a fine thing, because it combines the two pleasures of talking to yourself and talking to a crowd.
CESARE PAVESEAll sins have their origin in a sense of inferiority otherwise called ambition.
CESARE PAVESEIn general, the man who is readily disposed to sacrifice himself is one who does not know how else to give meaning to his life. The profession of enthusiasm is the most sickening of all insincerities.
CESARE PAVESEThe only way to escape the abyss is to look at it, gauge it, sound it out and descend into it.
CESARE PAVESEThere 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.
CESARE PAVESEBecause, to despise money, one must have plenty of it.
CESARE PAVESEWhy does a man who is truly in love insist that this relationship must continue and be “lifelong”? Because life is pain and the enjoyment of love is an anesthetic. Who would want to wake up halfway through an operation?
CESARE PAVESENot believing in anything is also a religion .
CESARE PAVESEThose philosophers who believe in the absolute logic of truth have never had to discuss it on close terms with a woman.
CESARE PAVESELessons are not given, they are taken.
CESARE PAVESEThe art of living is the art of knowing how to believe lies. The fearful thing about it is that, not knowing what truth may be, we can still recognize lies.
CESARE PAVESEA dream is a creation of the intelligence, the creator being present but not knowing how it will end.
CESARE PAVESEIt is not the actual enjoyment of pleasure that we desire. What we want is to test the futility of that pleasure, so as to be no longer obsessed by it.
CESARE PAVESETo avenge a wrong done to you, is to rob yourself of the comfort of crying out against the injustice of it.
CESARE PAVESEBut 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.
CESARE PAVESE