Italo Svevo

"We are each the author of our own tragedy and the victim of our own plot."

"The path to self-knowledge is lined with comfortable delusions we must abandon."

"We fear others not because they are different, but because they reveal our sameness."

"Hope is the luxury of those who have not yet been disappointed."

"The world rewards consistency in error over inconsistency in truth."

"We are all works in progress, pretending to be finished."

"Beauty fades, but the memory of beauty sustains us."

"Change is the only certainty, yet we cling desperately to stasis."

"The examined life reveals not answers, but deeper questions."

"We seek freedom, but freedom is the burden we least wish to bear."

"The capacity for self-deception is our most developed talent."

"The man who waits for roasted pigeons to fly into his mouth must wait a very long time."

"I understand myself only when I am talking."

"Life is a disease; birth is the infection."

"To become really acquainted with a man one must first quarrel with him."

"When one is young, one venerates and despises without that half measure which is the real principle of taste."

"Man wishes to be happy even when he so lives as to make happiness impossible."

"The tendency to deny is just as human as the tendency to affirm."

"Old age has this about it, that you are not young."

"Consciousness is a disease."

"Every man is the sum total of his past."

"I live by my work, and I love my work."

"In the depths of ourselves lies the power to change our destiny."

"Memory is a good thing. Memory is a bad thing. Memory is a very strange thing."

"We are all dying, but some of us are doing it more slowly than others."

"The beautiful thing about writing is that it reveals the truth we try to hide from ourselves."

"Love is the only activity that justifies the pain of existence."

"One cannot love and be wise."

"Freedom is a heavy load to bear, which is why many choose to surrender it."

"The weak man suffers; the strong man studies."