To kill someone, even treacherously is more manly than to wound a friend by betraying his confidence. Italo Svevo More Quotes by Italo Svevo More Quotes From Italo Svevo You see things less clearly when you open your eyes too wide. Italo Svevo wide eye Who knows whether, if I had given up smoking, I should really have become the strong perfect man I imagined? Perhaps it was this very doubt that bound me to my vice, because life is so much pleasanter if one is able to believe in one's own latent greatness Italo Svevo strong fear believe There are three things I always forget. Names, faces and... the third I can't remember. Italo Svevo three names inspirational Whenever I look at a mountain I always expect it to turn into a volcano. Italo Svevo volcanoes mountain nature Health doesn't analyze itself, nor does it look at itself in the mirror. Only we sick people know something about ourselves. Italo Svevo sick mirrors people Everyone tends to remember the past with greater fervor as the present gains greater importance. Italo Svevo gains remember past It is comfortable to live in the belief that you are great, though your greatness is latent. Italo Svevo latent greatness belief Tears throw a veil over our faults and allow us to accuse fate without fear or contradiction. Italo Svevo fate tears fear Misunderstanding women is a clear sign of scant virility. Italo Svevo misunderstanding clear Pain and love - the whole of life, in short - cannot be looked on as a disease just because they make us suffer. Italo Svevo pain suffering life And it is true that life lacks the monotony of museums. There come days which seem worthy of being framed, but they are so full of conflicting sounds, of line and color and living, burning light that they never become tedious. Italo Svevo light fear museums Everyone remembers his past with greater vividness as the present becomes more important. Dying men in their last delirium are supposed to see their whole life spread out before them. Italo Svevo fear men past A novelist who ranks with Proust , Kafka , Musil and his friend James Joyce as one of the enduring pillars of Modernism. Italo Svevo pillars proust novelists The fancies of wine are authentic events. Italo Svevo fancy events wine The great modern novel of the comic-pathetic illusion of freedom is Confessions of Zeno . Italo Svevo modern-novel confession illusion