"There is an art in taking the whiplash of suffering full in the face, an art you must learn. Let each single attack exhaust itself; pain always makes single attacks, so that its bite may be more intense, more concentrated. And you, while its fangs are implanted and injecting their venom at one spot, do not forget to offer it another place where it can bite you, and so relieve the pain of the first."

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Source: Cesare Pavese (2017). “This Business of Living: Diaries 1935-1950”, p.207, Routledge

About the author

Cesare Pavese

Poet, Novelist

Cesare Pavese was an Italian poet and novelist known for his profound exploration of love and loneliness, particularly in his work 'The Moon and the Bonfires.'

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