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We must never say, even in fun, that we are disheartened, because someone might take us at our word.

Cesare Pavese

No one ever lacks a good reason for suicide.
CESARE PAVESE

Goodness Reason Suicide
Writing is a fine thing, because it combines the two pleasures of talking to yourself and talking to a crowd.
CESARE PAVESE

Combination Happiness Writing Yourself
What we desire is not to possess a woman, but to be the only one to possess her.
CESARE PAVESE

Access Desire Oneself Possession Woman Worth
Waiting is still an occupation. It is having nothing to wait for that is terrible.
CESARE PAVESE

Occupation Patient Terrible
Hate is always a clash between our spirit and someone else’s body.
CESARE PAVESE

Body Hate Spirit
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.
CESARE PAVESE

Clear Conscience Spirit Suffering Thinking World
Here’s the difficulty about suicide: it is an act of ambition that can be committed only when one has passed beyond ambition.
CESARE PAVESE

Act Ambition Beyond Difficult Pass Suicide
A love thought: I love you so much that I could wish I had been born your brother, or had brought you into the world myself.
CESARE PAVESE

Born Love Thinking World
We commit two wrongs when we fail to right a wrong.
CESARE PAVESE

Commitment Failure Wrong
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.
CESARE PAVESE

Hide Life Lose People Trick Worst
But the real, tremendous truth is this: suffering serves no purpose whatever.
CESARE PAVESE

Purpose Reality Service Suffering Truth
Why 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 PAVESE

Love Man Operation Relationship True Wake Up
The real affliction of old age is remorse.
CESARE PAVESE

Affliction Age Old Reality
Perfect behaviour is born of complete indifference.
CESARE PAVESE

Born Complete Difference Perfection
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.
CESARE PAVESE

Exception Life Live Point Yourself
One must look for one thing only, to find many.
CESARE PAVESE

Finding Oneself Search
Living is like working out a long addition sum, and if you make a mistake in the first two totals you will never find the right answer. It means involving oneself in a complicated chain of circumstances.
CESARE PAVESE

Addition Complication Live Mistake Right Work
There is something indecent in words .
CESARE PAVESE

Decent Word
One does not kill oneself for love of a woman, but because love – any love – reveals us in our nakedness, our misery, our vulnerability, our nothingness.
CESARE PAVESE

Kill Love Naked Nothing Vulnerable Woman
From someone who doesn’t want to share your destiny, you should neither accept a cigarette.
CESARE PAVESE

Acceptance Destiny Share Yourself
What world lies beyond that stormy sea I do not know, but every ocean has a distant shore, and I shall reach it.
CESARE PAVESE

Beyond Lying Ocean Reach World
Not believing in anything is also a religion .
CESARE PAVESE

Believe Religion Wisdom
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.
CESARE PAVESE

Generation Interest Problem Solve
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 PAVESE

Boy Growth Himself Man Philosophy Wisdom Youth
Life without smoking is like the smoke without the roast.
CESARE PAVESE

Absence Life Smoking
Suicides are timid murderers. Masochism instead of Sadism.
CESARE PAVESE

Character Nature Suicide
Nowadays, suicide is just a way of disappearing. It is carried out timidly, quietly, and falls flat. It is no longer an action, only a submission.
CESARE PAVESE

Action Disappear Fall Quiet Submission Suicide

We must never say, even in fun, that we are disheartened, because someone might take us at our word.

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We must never say, even in fun, that we are disheartened, because someone might take us at our word.

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Popular Authors

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