“I started explaining to her that nothing is vulgar in itself but that talking and thinking make it so.”

— Cesare Pavese, The Beach (1941), Chapter 6

About Cesare Pavese

1908 – 1950

Italian poet and novelist, author of the diary "This Business of Living".

“Waiting is still an occupation. It is having nothing to wait for that is terrible.”

“Things are revealed through the memories we have of them. Remembering a thing means seeing it—only then—for the first time.”

“Idleness makes hours pass slowly and years swiftly. Activity makes the hours short and the years long.”

“Any one thing in the creation is sufficient to demonstrate a Providence to an humble and grateful mind.”

“Why, what is weeping and sighing? A judgement. What is misfortune? A judgement.”

“For God made all mankind to be happy, to be serene.”

“Love looks not with the eyes, but with the mind, and therefore is winged Cupid painted blind.”

“There is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so.”

“Remember that all is opinion.”