Quotes by Cezar Petrescu

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Literatures deepened more and more in the search for ethnic specificity, and their value in universality was valued precisely to the extent that they more clearly expressed the soul of a nation.

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A literature is only valid when it is permeated by the aspirations of society and when it expresses them.

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There is no literature, no art, without roots in the earth and in the occupations of men.

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No genius has ever appeared out of nowhere, without ramified roots in the history of his people, without breathing the air of his age, without expressing in his creative work the tumult, the questions and the struggles of that age.

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A literature is valued in universal literature, only through what it brings specifically national and autochthonous... We will deserve a place in universal literature only to the extent that we know how to remain Romanians as much and as intact as possible.

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Misfortune and pain teach us the meaning of life: but it would be terrible if this teaching were to remain here forever, to paralyze us... We forget it in order to have the pleasure of searching and finding it once more. This is actually the whole story of mankind.

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Everyone forgets. Here is perhaps the only secret of our strength, of the fierceness to live. Man forgets a truth, searches for it again... discovers it.