Waiting is still an occupation. It is having nothing to wait for that is terrible.
Cesare PaveseRead
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.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Reality often feels confining, and true engagement with it is necessary for meaningful existence.
In this quote, Cesare Pavese suggests that human life can be likened to a prison where individuals merely exist without truly living or engaging with the realities around them. He emphasizes the importance of confronting and understanding reality, as opposed to being distracted by superficial thoughts and actions which do not contribute to genuine fulfillment.
Themes
RealityExistenceConsciousnessEngagementFulfillment
In practice
Example use cases
In a motivational speech about embracing life's challenges.
More from Cesare Pavese
All quotes →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
Perfect behavior is born of complete indifference. Perhaps this is why we always love madly someone who treats us with indifference.
Cesare PaveseRead
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