“There is only one pleasure—that of being alive. All the rest is misery.”
Cesare Pavese (1908–1950) Italian poet, novelist, literary critic, and translator
This Business of Living (1935-1950)
A Summer Bird-Cage (1963; New York: William Morrow, 1964) p. 120
“There is only one pleasure—that of being alive. All the rest is misery.”
Cesare Pavese (1908–1950) Italian poet, novelist, literary critic, and translator
This Business of Living (1935-1950)
“It is rarely that the pleasures of the imagination will compensate for the pain of sleeplessness”
Thomas Hardy book Far from the Madding Crowd
Source: Far from the Madding Crowd
Matthew Arnold (1822–1888) English poet and cultural critic who worked as an inspector of schools
The Functions of Criticism at the Present Time (1864)
Nicholas Sparks book The Notebook
Variant: But she also sensed it wasn't enough. She wanted something else, something different, something more. Passion and romance, perhaps, or maybe quiet conversation in candlelit rooms, or perhaps something as simple as not being second.
Source: The Notebook
“I suppose being right will have to compensate me for being poor—the story of my life, I fear.”
Guy Gavriel Kay book Tigana
Source: Tigana (1990), Chapter 1 (p. 14)
“Each contact with a human being is so rare, so precious, one should preserve it.”
Anaïs Nin (1903–1977) writer of novels, short stories, and erotica
“The pleasures that give most joy are the ones that most rarely come.”
Democritus Ancient Greek philosopher, pupil of Leucippus, founder of the atomic theory
Source Book in Ancient Philosophy (1907), The Golden Sayings of Democritus