240 Quotes by Cesare Pavese

Why so much innuendo, draped like ivy to hide a cesspool, when everyone knew the cesspool was there?

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.

The art of living is the art of knowing how to believe lies. The fearful thing about it is that, not knowing what truth may be, we can still recognize lies.

But here's the worst part: the trick to life lies in hiding from those we hold most dear how much they mean to is; if not, we'd lose them.

We never remember days, only moments.

A work settles nothing, just as the labor of a whole generation settles nothing. Sons, and the morrow, always start afresh.

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

We must never say, even in fun, that we are disheartened, because someone might take us at our word.

The only joy in the world is to begin. It is good to be alive because living is beginning, always, every moment.