Try an author, a thought, or a phrase in “quotes”.↑ ↓ Navigate · Esc Close

Type a word, saying or author to search.

Browse the library ↗

For human nature is such that grief and pain - even simultaneously suffered - do not add up as a whole in our consciousness, but hide, the lesser behind the greater, according to a definite law of perspective. It is providential and is our means of surviving in the camp. And this is the reason why so often in free life one hears it said that man is never content.

For human nature is such that grief and pain - even simultaneously suffered - do not add up as a whole in our consciousness, but hide, the lesser behind the greater, according to a definite law of perspective. It is providential and is our means of surviving in the camp. And this is the reason why so often in free life one hears it said that man is never content.

Historical period not yet established

Meaning not yet available

This entry is preserved in the wider collection, but an individual explanation has not yet been added. We do not substitute a generic description for an interpretation of these particular words.

Browse entries with explanations and examples ↗
▷ Play from here
Attribution & collection notes
Author or tradition
Primo Levi
Attribution: attributed
Country attributed
Not established
A country attribution does not establish the earliest origin.
Historical period
Historical period not yet established
No sufficiently supported historical placement has been established. Import and download dates are not treated as composition dates.
Recorded source
Contributor-provided quotation collection

Supplied reference C; CSV row 113695; supplied attribution, independently unverified

A collection's publication date can be later than the words it records.

The voice behind the words.

More from Primo Levi ↗