Quote

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

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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
World
Keep
Spirit
Consoling
Others
Suffer
Thought
Matters
Problem
Conscience
Nothing
Simply
Matter
Clear
Much
Suffering

More quotes by Cesare Pavese

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We do not free ourselves from something by avoiding it, but only by living though it.
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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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Give me the ready hand rather than the ready tongue.
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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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A dream is a creation of the intelligence, the creator being present but not knowing how it will end.
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Traveling is a brutality. It forces you to trust strangers and to lose sight of all that familiar comfort of home and friends
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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.
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We do not remember days, we remember moments.
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Waiting is still an occupation. It is having nothing to wait for that is terrible.
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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.
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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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The slowness of time, for a man who knows nothing will happen, is brutal.
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When you dream, you are an author, but you do not know how it will end.
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It is stupid to grieve for the loss of a girl friend: you might never have met her, so you can do without her.
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The richness of life lies in memories we have forgotten.
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Human imagination is immensely poorer than reality.
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You've got to understand life, understand it when you're young.
Cesare Pavese
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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.
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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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What we desire is not to possess a woman, but to be the only one to possess her.
Cesare Pavese