“The experience of danger creates more cowards every day.”

— Cesare Pavese, The House on the Hill (1949), Chapter 16

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.”

“There is always a philosophy for lack of courage.”

“He who has begun has half done. Dare to be wise; begin!”

“He who knows how to suffer everything can dare everything.”

“Sure I am of this, that you have only to endure to conquer.”

“If you see what is right and fail to act on it, you lack courage.”

“How long will men dare to call anything expedient that is not right?”