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It 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 Pavese

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Cesare Pavese
Age: 41 †
Born: 1908
Born: September 9
Died: 1950
Died: August 27
Biographer
Journalist
Linguist
Literary Critic
Literary Editor
Poet
Screenwriter
Translator
Writer
Desire
Futility
Enjoyment
Actual
Obsessed
Test
Tests
Longer
Pleasure

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The real affliction of old age is remorse.
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No one ever lacks a good reason for suicide.
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We obtain things when we no longer want them.
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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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At great periods you have always felt, deep within you, the temptation to commit suicide. You gave yourself to it, breached your own defenses. You were a child. The idea of suicide was a protest against life by dying, you would escape this longing for death.
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Don't you know that what happens to you once always happens again? You always react in the same way to the same thing. It's no accident when you make a mess. Then you do it again. It's called destiny.
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A man succeeds in completing a work only when his qualities transcend that work.
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To know the world, one must construct it
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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.
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The man of action is not the headstrong fool who rushes into danger with no thought for himself, but the man who puts into practice the things he knows.
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The problem is not the harshness of Fate, for anything we want strongly enough we get. The trouble is rather that when we have it we grow sick of it, and then we should never blame Fate, only our own desire.
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Perfect behaviour is born of complete indifference.
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We can all do good deeds, but very few of us can think good thoughts.
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Verrà la morte e avrà i tuoi occhi. (Death will come and it will have your eyes.)
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Many men on the point of an edifying death would be furious if they were suddenly restored to health.
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I thought of how many places there are in the world that belong in this way to someone, who has it in his blood beyond anyone else's understanding.
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No woman marries for money they are all clever enough, before marrying a millionaire, to fall in love with him first.
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Writing is a fine thing, because it combines the two pleasures of talking to yourself and talking to a crowd.
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You wait for nothing if not for the word that will burst from the deep like a fruit among branches.
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Every luxury must be paid for, and everything is a luxury, starting with being in this world.
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