“The real affliction of old age is remorse.”

—  Cesare Pavese

Source: The moon and the bonfire (1950), Chapter VIII, p. 49

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update June 3, 2021. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "The real affliction of old age is remorse." by Cesare Pavese?
Cesare Pavese photo
Cesare Pavese 137
Italian poet, novelist, literary critic, and translator 1908–1950

Related quotes

José Martí photo

“Man has to suffer. When he has no real afflictions, he invents some.”

José Martí (1853–1895) Poet, writer, Cuban nationalist leader
Philip Roth photo

“Old age isn't a battle; old age is a massacre.”

Philip Roth book Everyman

Source: Everyman (2006)

“When we wallow in guilt, remorse, and shame over real or imagined sins of the past, we are disdaining God's gift of grace.”

Brennan Manning (1934–2013) writer, American Roman Catholic priest and United States Marine
Thomas Fuller (writer) photo

“2023. Assist the afflicted with something real, if thou canst; As for Tears they are but Water, what good can they do?”

Thomas Fuller (writer) (1654–1734) British physician, preacher, and intellectual

Introductio ad prudentiam: Part II (1727)

Sören Kierkegaard photo

“The two guides call out to a man early and late. And yet, no, for when remorse calls to a man it is always late. The call to find the way again by seeking out God in the confession of sins is always at the eleventh hour. Whether you are young or old, whether you have sinned much or little, whether you have offended much or neglected much, the guilt makes this call come at the eleventh hour. The inner agitation of the heart understands what remorse insists upon, that the eleventh hour has come. For in the sense of time, the old man’s age is the eleventh hour; and the instant of death, the final moment in the eleventh hour. The indolent youth speaks of a long life that lies before him. The indolent old man hopes that his death is still a long way off. But repentance and remorse belong to the eternal in a man.”

Sören Kierkegaard (1813–1855) Danish philosopher and theologian, founder of Existentialism

Søren Kierkegaard, Purity of Heart is to Will One Thing, 1847 p. 40-41
1840s, Upbuilding Discourses in Various Spirits (1847), Purity of Heart (1847)

Adolph Freiherr Knigge photo

“Respect old age!”

Adolph Freiherr Knigge book Über den Umgang mit Menschen

Ehre das Alter!
Über den Umgang mit Menschen (1788)

Francis Bacon photo

“Alonso of Aragon was wont to say in commendation of age, that age appears to be best in four things — old wood best to burn, old wine to drink, old friends to trust, and old authors to read.”

Francis Bacon (1561–1626) English philosopher, statesman, scientist, jurist, and author

No. 97
Apophthegms (1624)

Reinhold Niebuhr photo

“comfort the afflicted, and afflict the comfortable”

Reinhold Niebuhr (1892–1971) American protestant theologian

Source: The Essential Reinhold Niebuhr: Selected Essays and Addresses

Edith Wharton photo

“Old age, calm, expanded, broad with the haughty breadth of the universe,
Old age flowing free with the delicious near-by freedom of death.”

Edith Wharton (1862–1937) American novelist, short story writer, designer

Walt Whitman, "Song of the Open Road" http://www.bartleby.com/142/82., 12, Leaves of Grass (1855)
Misattributed

Anne Bradstreet photo

“Youth is the time of getting, middle age of improving, and old age of spending.”

Anne Bradstreet (1612–1672) Anglo-American poet

3.
Meditations Divine and Moral (1664)

Related topics