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It is not the actual enjoyment of pleasure that we desire. What we want is to test the futility of that pleasure, so as to be no longer obsessed by it.

— Cesare Pavese This Business of Living (1935)

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Happiness

More quotes by Cesare Pavese

He told me that it isn't what you do but how you do it that shows whether you are clever or not.

The Moon and the Bonfire (1950)

You've got to understand life, understand it when you're young.

The Beach (1941)

The real affliction of old age is remorse.

The Moon and the Bonfire (1950)

The whole problem of life, then, is this: how to break out of one's own loneliness, how to communicate with others.

This Business of Living (1935)

In the mental disturbance and effort of writing, what sustains you is the certainty that on every page there is something left unsaid.

This Business of Living (1935)

All Cesare Pavese quotes →

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It is the law of life that if you are kind to someone you feel happy. If you are cruel you are unhappy. And if you hurt someone, you will be hurt back.

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Shared pain is lessened; shared joy, increased — thus do we refute entropy.

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Attribution

Quote text and notes from Wikiquote: Cesare Pavese (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.