I spent the whole evening sitting before a mirror to keep myself company. - Cesare Pavese

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

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.

War makes men barbarous because, to take part in it, one must harden oneself against all regret, all appreciation of delicacy and sensitive values. One must live as if those values did not exist, and when the war is over one has lost the resilience to return to those values.