Reality is a prison, where one vegetates and always will. All the rest - thought, action - is just a pastime, mental or physical. What counts then, is to come to grips with reality. The rest can go.
Cesare PaveseRead
Artists are the monks of the bourgeois state.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Artists serve a vital and contemplative role in society, often reflecting and critiquing the values of their time.
In this quote, Cesare Pavese likens artists to monks, suggesting that they are dedicated to a higher calling that transcends the mundane concerns of the bourgeois, or middle-class, society in which they operate. This implies that artists, through their creations, engage deeply with the human experience and societal issues, often isolating themselves from mainstream culture to pursue a profound understanding and expression of existence.
Themes
ArtistsMonksBourgeoisSocietyCreativity
In practice
Example use cases
This quote could be used in an art class to discuss the role of artists in society.
More from Cesare Pavese
All quotes →Waiting is still an occupation. It is having nothing to wait for that is terrible.
Cesare PaveseRead
Dawn's faint breath breathes with your mouth at the ends of empty streets. Gray light your eyes, sweet drops of dawn on dark hills. Your steps and breath like the wind of dawn smother houses. The city shudders, Stones exhale— you are life, an awakening. Star lost in the light of dawn, trill of the breeze, warmth, breath— the night is done. You are light and morning.
Cesare PaveseRead
There is mercy for everyone, except those who are bored with life.
Cesare PaveseRead
One does not kill oneself for love of a woman, but because love - any love - reveals us in our nakedness, our misery, our vulnerability, our nothingness.
Cesare PaveseRead
The cadence of suffering has begun. Every evening at dusk, my heart constricts until night has come.
Cesare PaveseRead
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A song ain't nothing but a conversation fixed up to where you can talk it over and over without getting tired of it.
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