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
No one ever lacks a good reason for suicide.
Interpretation
What this quote means
This quote suggests that individuals facing despair can find justifications for their darkest thoughts.
Cesare Pavese's quote reflects the profound anguish that can lead a person to consider ending their own life. It implies that in moments of extreme distress, people may rationalize their feelings and pain, believing they have valid reasons for such drastic decisions, highlighting the complexities of mental health and the human experience.
Themes
SuicideDespairMental HealthReasonPain
In practice
Example use cases
In a discussion about mental health awareness, this quote could emphasize the need to understand the justifications people create for suicidal thoughts.
More from Cesare Pavese
All quotes →Waiting is still an occupation. It is having nothing to wait for that is terrible.
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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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