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In 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 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
Meaning
Sickening
Else
Insincerity
Doe
Disposed
Give
Readily
Giving
Enthusiasm
Men
Profession
Life
Sacrifice
General

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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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Verrà la morte e avrà i tuoi occhi. (Death will come and it will have your eyes.)
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Human imagination is immensely poorer than reality.
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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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Great lovers will always be unhappy, because, for them, love is of supreme importance. Consequently they demand of their beloved the same intensity of thought as they have for her, otherwise they feel betrayed.
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Waiting is still an occupation. It is having nothing to wait for that is terrible.
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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.
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Reality is a prison, where one vegetates and always will.
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I was happy enough I knew that during the night the whole city might go up in flames and all its people be killed, but the ravines, houses, and footpaths would wake in the morning calm and unchanged.
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Literature is a defense against the attacks of life. It says to life: You can't deceive me. I know your habits, foresee and enjoy watching all your reactions, and steal your secret by involving you in cunning obstructions that halt your normal flow.
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The world, the future, is now within you as your past, as experience, skill in technique, and the rich, everlasting mystery is found to be childish you that, at the time, you made no effort to possess.
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If you wish to travel far and fast, travel light. Take off all your envies, jealousies, unforgiveness, selfishness and fears.
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We commit two wrongs when we fail to right a wrong.
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To avenge a wrong done to you, is to rob yourself of the comfort of crying out against the injustice of it.
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Perfect behaviour is born of complete indifference.
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Artists are the monks of the bourgeois state.
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People who don't know any better will always be in the dark because the power lies in the hands of men who take good care that ordinary folk don't understand, in the hands, that is, of the government, of the clerical party, of the capitalists.
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How can you have confidence in a woman who will not risk entrusting her whole life to you, day and night?
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To know the world, one must construct it
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