Idleness makes hours pass slowly and years swiftly. Activity makes the hours short and the years long. - Cesare Pavese

The problem is not the harshness of Fate, for anything we want strongly enough we get. The trouble is rather that when we have it we grow sick of it, and then we should never blame Fate, only our own desire.

Are you or aren't you convinced that weakness is a man's condition? How can you raise yourself if you haven't fallen first?

There is a reason why I came back to this place—came back here instead of to Canelli, Barbaresco or Alba. It is almost certain that I was not born here; where I was born I don't know. There is not a house or a bit of ground or a handful of dust hereabouts of which I can say: "This was me before I was born."