To choose a hardship for ourselves is our only defense against that hardship. This is what is meant by accepting suffering. Those who, by their very nature, can suffer completely, utterly, have an advantage. That is how we can disarm the power of suffering, make it our own creation, our own choice; submit to it. A justification for suicide.
Cesare PaveseRemember, writing poetry is like making love: one will never know whether one's own pleasure is shared.
Cesare PaveseLiving is like working out a long addition sum, and if you make a mistake in the first two totals you will never find the right answer. It means involving oneself in a complicated chain of circumstances.
Cesare PaveseChildhood is not only the childhood we really had but also the impressions we formed of it in our adolescence and maturity. That is why childhood seems so long. Probably every period of life is multiplied by our reflections upon the next.
Cesare PaveseWill power is only the tensile strength of one's own disposition. One cannot increase it by a single ounce.
Cesare Pavese