Quote Of The Day By Cesare Pavese: 'Life Is Not A Search For Experience, But For...'

Cesare Pavese was a celebrated Italian writer who lent his talents to novels, poetry, critical reviews, and translations. He had a keen interest in American literature and brought many of the country's novels and literary works to an Italian audience through his translation work. Pavese was born in Santo Stefano Belbo, Italy, on September 9, 1908. He died by suicide in 1950 after winning the Strega Prize for his 1949 tome "La bella estate" ("The Beautiful Summer").

While Pavese was a very successful author and a renowned figure in the literary world, he struggled with feeling worthy, but his best works were created from a place of better wanting to understand humans and how they live and find meaning in the world. His 1947 book "Dialoghi con Leucò" ("Dialogues with Leucò") notably explored this topic in depth.

Pavese also kept a diary, which was published after his death and titled "The Burning Brand." Another translation of his diary was named "This Business of Living," from which we pulled today's quote.

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Cesare Pavese once wrote, "Life is not a search for experience, but for ourselves. Having discovered our own fundamental level we realize that it conforms to our own destiny and we find peace." Pavese penned this in one of his dairy entries, which was later published as "This Business of Living." The entries contained in the book were written from 1935 to 1950, and included an array of experiences, such as Pavese's arrest for editing the anti-fascist review "La Cultura" and the subsequent time he spent in prison.

"This Business of Living" gives readers insight into Pavese's state of mind during some of the most tumultuous times in his life, right to the moments that led up to his suicide. Pavese wrote candidly about the challenges artists like him faced and spoke openly about how he struggled with feelings of hopelessness and isolation.

When studying today's quote, it would appear that Pavese believed that, without perhaps realizing it, we spend our lives searching for our true selves, and without knowing who we really are, we'll remain restless souls.

Cesare Pavese seemed to understand something that eludes the majority of people for most of their life — your true self can only be discovered when you are brave enough to look inward, and have the courage to look the real version of you in the eye, because the person you really are is the one who will shape your entire life.

Pavese argued that coming to terms with who you are and fully understanding who that person is will give you real and lasting peace. We spend our lives accumulating things and experiences in an attempt to express who we are, and hopefully discover our true selves in the process. But Pavese believed that we're not in need of experiences or material things to help us discover our inner selves. The answer is already within us — we just need to be brave enough to look.

Despite understanding this concept and writing it down in his diary, Pavese seemed to have struggled with it himself, given that he had a rough time with love, life, and finding lasting companionship and joy. Some of his diary entries were filled with self-loathing and hinted that he believed he was destined to be forever alone.

• "We do not free ourselves from something by avoiding it, but only by living through it."

• "The real affliction of old age is remorse."

• "The only joy in the world is to begin."

• "The whole problem of life, then, is this: how to break out of one's own lonelieness, how to communicate with others."

• "Things which cost nothing are those which cost the most. Why? Because they cost us the effort of understanding that they are free."