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
Every luxury must be paid for, and everything is a luxury, starting with being in this world.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Life comes with costs and responsibilities, and existence itself is a luxury that must be earned.
This quote by Cesare Pavese reflects the idea that every aspect of life, including the fundamental experience of being alive, comes with a price. It suggests that to enjoy the luxuries of life, one must recognize and accept the sacrifices, work, and responsibilities that accompany them. The notion that everything in life is a luxury highlights the fragility and preciousness of existence.
Themes
LuxuryLifeExistenceSacrificePhilosophy
In practice
Example use cases
This quote can be used in a speech about the value of life and personal responsibility.
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.
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There is mercy for everyone, except those who are bored with life.
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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.
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The cadence of suffering has begun. Every evening at dusk, my heart constricts until night has come.
Cesare PaveseRead
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