Cesare Pavese Quotes

The surprise is the motive of every discovery.

There is something sadder than growing old, and that is to remain a child.

Writing is beautiful because it combines the two joys: speaking to oneself and speaking to the multitude.

The future will come from a long pain and a long silence.

Writing poetry is like making love: one will never know if their own joy is shared.

If it's true that we get used to pain, how is it that over the years we suffer more and more?

The only joy in the world is to begin. It is beautiful to live because to live is to begin, always, at every moment. When that sensation is missing, one would want to die.

But the great, the tremendous truth is this: suffering is useless.

It's true that by suffering you can learn many things. The bad thing is that having suffered, we have lost the strength to make use of them.

The whole problem of life is this: how to break one's own solitude, how to communicate with others.

It's called nostalgia, and it serves to remind us that, fortunately, we are also fragile.

The lesson is always the same: to dive in headfirst and know how to endure the punishment.