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
But here's the worst part: the trick to life lies in hiding from those we hold most dear how much they mean to is; if not, we'd lose them.
Interpretation
What this quote means
This quote reflects on the complexity of expressing our true feelings to those we love, suggesting that sometimes we hide our deep emotions to protect our bonds.
Cesare Pavese expresses the paradoxical nature of our emotional connections with loved ones in this quote. He suggests that the deepest bonds often come with the burden of unspoken feelings; that we may choose to hide the full extent of our love and appreciation to safeguard those relationships. By not revealing the significance of these feelings, we shield ourselves and our loved ones from potential loss, implying that vulnerability can sometimes lead to fear of separation. This highlights a crucial aspect of human relationships where the fear of losing someone can cause us to conceal our true emotions, creating a complex web of love and self-preservation.
Themes
RelationshipsEmotionsLoveFearConnection
In practice
Example use cases
During a family gathering, one might use this quote to discuss the complexities of family relationships.
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
Similar quotes
Loneliness is like starvation: you don't realize how hungry you are until you begin to eat.
Joyce Carol OatesRead
People disappeared, reappeared, made plans to go somewhere, and then lost each other, searched for each other, found each other a few feet away.
F. Scott FitzgeraldRead
When I think about [characters], I like to think of them in their relationships to each other. In the same way, I think that's how humans are ultimately defined. We are our relationships to one another. And a lot of what's interesting about us happens in the context of other people.
John GreenRead
Marriage is about becoming a team. You’re going to spend the rest of your life learning about each other, and every now and then, things blow up. But the beauty of marriage is that if you picked the right person and you both love each other, you’ll always figure out a way to get through it.
Nicholas SparksRead
The fallen angel becomes a malignant devil. Yet even that enemy of God and man had friends and associates in his desolation; I am alone.
Mary Wollstonecraft ShelleyRead
Employers should not be able to impose their religious beliefs on female employees, ignoring their individual health decisions and denying their right to reproductive care. Bosses belong in the boardroom, not in the bedroom.
Dina TitusRead