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Natalia Ginzburg

Natalia Ginzburg Quotes

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Famous Natalia Ginzburg Quotes

“And if we ourselves have a vocation, if we have not betrayed it, if over the years we have continued to love it, to serve it passionately, we are able to keep all sense of ownership out of our love for our children. But if on the other hand we do not have a vocation, or if we have abandoned it or betrayed it out of cynicism or a fear of life, or because of mistaken parental love, or because of some little virtue that exists within us, then we cling to our children as a shipwrecked mariner clings to a tree trunk.”

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Book:The Little Virtues
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“My vocation is to write and I have known this for a long time. I hope I won't be misunderstood; I know nothing about the value of the things I am able to write. I know that writing is my vocation. When I sit down to write I feel extraordinarily at ease, and I move in an element which, it seems to me, I know extraordinarily well; I use tools that are familiar to me and they fit snugly in my hands. But when I write stories I am like someone who is in her own country, walking along streets that she has known since she was a child, between walls and trees that are hers.”

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Author:Natalia Ginzburg
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“As far as the education of children is concerned I think they should be taught not the little virtues but the great ones. Not thrift but generosity and an indifference to money; not caution but courage and a contempt for danger; not shrewdness but frankness and a love of truth; not tact but love for one's neighbor and self-denial; not a desire for success but a desire to be and to know.”

ThinkingKnowsLoveShouldChildrenLittlesSelfTruthSuccessDesireEducationCourageKnowingVirtueDangerTaughtConcernedNeighborGenerosityDenialNovelistsIndifferenceContemptCautionGreat OnesThriftTeaching ChildrenTactEssayistsSelf-denialFranknessDesire For SuccessLove Your Neighbor As YourselfShrewdness
Author:Natalia Ginzburg
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