The novels that attract me most are those that create an illusion of transparency around a knot of human relationships as obscure, cruel, and perverse as possible.
Italo CalvinoRead
Work stops at sunset. Darkness falls over the building site. The sky is filled with stars. "There is the blueprint," they say.
Interpretation
What this quote means
This quote reflects on the transition from day to night, symbolizing the end of labor and the contemplation of possibilities that lie ahead.
Italo Calvino's quote emphasizes the contrast between the hard work of construction during the day and the peacefulness of night that invites reflection. The mention of the blueprint suggests that while physical work halts, the potential and dreams symbolized by the stars continue to inspire and guide future endeavors, reminding us that our aspirations persist even in moments of rest.
Themes
WorkNightStarsBlueprintReflection
In practice
Example use cases
This quote can be shared during a team meeting to inspire reflection on achievements after a long day.
More from Italo Calvino
All quotes βYour first book is the only one that matters. Perhaps a writer should write only that one. That is the one moment when you make the big leap; the opportunity to express yourself is offered that once, and you untie the knot within you then or never again.
Italo CalvinoRead
...and every Wednesday the perfumed young lady slips me a hundred-crown note to leave her alone with the convict. And by Thursday the hundred crowns are already gone in so much beer. And when the visiting hour is over, the young lady comes out with the stink of jail in her elegant clothes; and the prisoner goes back to his cell with the lady's perfume in his jailbird's suit. And I'm left with the smell of beer. Life is nothing but trading smells.
Italo CalvinoRead
Nobody these days holds the written word in such high esteem as police states do.
Italo CalvinoRead
The struggle of literature is in fact a struggle to escape from the confines of language; it stretches out from the utmost limits of what can be said; what stirs literature is the call and attraction of what is not in the dictionary.
Italo CalvinoRead
Fantasy is like jam. . . . You have to spread it on a solid piece of bread. If not, it remains a shapeless thing . . . out of which you canβt make anything.
Italo CalvinoRead
Similar quotes
An Adult faith does not follow the waves of fashion and the latest novelties.
Pope Benedict XviRead
Hypocrisy is a fashionable vice, and all fashionable vices pass for virtue.
MoliereRead
So in 1987 I gave up all animal products and became a vegan. Simply so that I could eat and live in accordance with my beliefs that animals have their own lives, that they're entitled to their own lives and that contributing to animal suffering is something that I don't want to be a part of.
MobyRead
In the midst of death life persists, in the midst of untruth, truth persists, in the midst of darkness light persists.
Mahatma GandhiRead
I am so afraid of people's words.They describe so distinctly everything: And this they call dog and that they call house, here the start and there the end. I worry about their mockery with words, they know everything, what will be, what was; no mountain is still miraculous; and their house and yard lead right up to God. I want to warn and object: Let the things be! I enjoy listening to the sound they are making. But you always touch: and they hush and stand still. That's how you kill.
Rainer Maria RilkeRead
Every true faith is infallible. It performs what the believing person hopes to find in it. But it does not offer the least support for the establishing of an objective truth. Here the ways of men divide. If you want to achieve peace of mind and happiness, have faith. If you want to be a disciple of truth, then search.
Friedrich NietzscheRead