Quotes by Cesare Pavese

Here are some of the most quoted words of wisdom by Cesare Pavese. This collection of Cesare Pavese quotes will help you find the courage and determination to move forward in life.

Who was Cesare Pavese?

Cesare Pavese was an Italian poet, novelist, and translator. He was born in 1908 and died in 1950. He is known for his lyrical works which blend traditional values with a modern outlook.

Pavese was a prominent figure in Italian literature and is considered one of the leading poets of the 20th century in Italy.

Cesare Pavese’s writing style was characterized by its simplicity, clarity, and directness, and his works have been widely translated and celebrated for their profound insights into the human condition.

Cesare Pavese was a prolific writer and produced a number of notable works during his lifetime. Some of his most famous books include:

“The Devil in the Hills” (1937) – a novel that explores themes of rural poverty and the loss of innocence.

“This Business of Living” (1938) – a collection of diary entries that offer a glimpse into Pavese’s personal life and thoughts.

“Dialogue with Leuco” (1941) – a philosophical work that reflects on the human condition and the search for meaning in life.

“The House on the Hill” (1948) – a novel that explores themes of disillusionment and the difficulty of communication between people.

“Traitors” (1950) – a novel that examines the themes of guilt and personal responsibility.

Best Cesare Pavese Quotes

We do not remember days, we remember moments. The richness of life lies in memories we have forgotten.

The words that strike us are those that awake an echo in a zone we have already made our own—the place where we live—and the vibration enables us to find fresh starting points within ourselves.

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

Love is the cheapest of religions.

Not believing in anything is also a religion.

Famous Quotes By Cesare Pavese

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.

War makes men barbarous because, to take part in it, one must harden oneself against all regret, all appreciation of delicacy and sensitive values. One must live as if those values did not exist, and when the war is over one has lost the resilience to return to those values.

The art of living is the art of knowing how to believe lies.

Here’s the difficulty about suicide: it is an act of ambition that can be committed only when one has passed beyond ambition.

There is only one pleasure —that of being alive. All the rest is misery.

There is something indecent in words .

Quotes From Cesare Pavese

Well Known Quotes Cesare Pavese

We want Realism’s wealth of experience and Symbolism’s depth of feeling. All art is a problem of balance between two opposites.

We do not free ourselves from something by avoiding it, but only by living though it.

If you wish to travel far and fast, travel light. Take off all your envies, jealousies, unforgiveness, selfishness and fears.

Life is pain and the enjoyment of love is an anesthetic.

The richness of life lies in memories we have forgotten.

We commit two wrongs when we fail to right a wrong.

The only way to escape the abyss is to look at it, gauge it, sound it out and descend into it.

One stops being a child when one realizes that telling one’s trouble does not make it any better.

The real affliction of old age is remorse.

Those philosophers who believe in the absolute logic of truth have never had to discuss it on close terms with a woman.

Human imagination is immensely poorer than reality.

Waiting is still an occupation. It is having nothing to wait for that is terrible.

Hate is always a clash between our spirit and someone else’s body.

But the real, tremendous truth is this: suffering serves no purpose whatever.

Give me the ready hand rather than the ready tongue.

Idleness makes hours pass slowly and years swiftly. Activity makes the hours short and the years long.

All sins have their origin in a sense of inferiority otherwise called ambition.

I am the captain of my destiny, I do not abandon the ship in hard times, But, I do have sense enough not to go down with the ship.

One must look for one thing only, to find many.

Because, to despise money, one must have plenty of it.

We can all do good deeds, but very few of us can think good thoughts.

Love has the faculty of making two lovers seem naked, not in each other’s sight, but in their own.

We care so little of other people than even Christianity urges us to do good for the love of God.

Artists are the monks of the bourgeois society.

Writing is a fine thing, because it combines the two pleasures of talking to yourself and talking to a crowd.

Suicides are timid murderers. Masochism instead of Sadism.

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.

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.

The only joy in the world is to begin.

There is mercy for everyone, except those who are bored with life.

Don’t mix wine and women.

Every luxury must be paid for, and everything is a luxury, starting with being in this world.

Perfect behavior is born of complete indifference.

We never remember days, only moments.

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