Fernando Pessoa Quotes

Portuguese poet, writer, and philosopher (1888–1935); creator of the heteronymic system including Alberto Caeiro, Ricardo Reis, Álvaro de Campos, and Bernardo Soares

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Fernando Pessoa (13 June 1888 – 30 November 1935) was a Portuguese poet and writer, most of whose work was published posthumously. He wrote frequently under heteronyms, alter egos with developed personalities, biographies, jobs, habits, attitudes, addresses, etc., who sometimes quoted and interacted with each other and other people.

From: Wikiquote (CC BY-SA 4.0)

Pen Names: Alberto Caeiro • Álvaro de Campos • Ricardo Reis • Bernardo Soares

Native Name: Fernando António Nogueira Pessoa

Alternative Names: Fernando Antonio Nogueira Pessoa

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أغتاظ. أرغب في فهم كل شيء، معرفة كل شيء، إكمال كل شيء، قول كل شيء، التمتع بكل شيء، التألم من كل شيء، نعم، التألم من كل شيء. لكن لا شيء من هذا كله، لا شيء. أنهكتني فِكرة ما أرغب في الحصول عليه، ما استطيعه، ما أحسّه. حياتي حلم كبير.

Life is what we make of it. Travel is the traveler. What we see isn't what we see but what we are.

Original: Porque eu sou do tamanho do que vejo e não do tamanho da minha altura.

Thing thrown to a corner, rag fallen on the road, my ignoble being feigns itself in front of life.

Original: Ser compreendido é prostituir-se.

Não sou, como disse Goethe, o espírito que nega, mas o espírito que contraria. (...) Porque contrariar actos, por maus que sejam, é estorvar o giro do mundo, que é acção. Mas contrariar ideias é fazer com que se abandonem, e se caia no desalento e de aí no sonho e portanto se pertença ao mundo

We may know that the work we continue to put off doing will be bad. Worse, however, is the work we never do. A work that's finished is at least finished. It may be poor, but it exists, like the miserable plant in the lone flowerpot of my neighbour who's crippled. That plant is her happiness, and sometimes it's even mine. What I write, bad as it is, may provide some hurt or sad soul a few moments of distraction from something worse. That's enough for me, or it isn't enough, but it serves some purpose, and so it is with all of life.

I've always rejected being understood. To be understood is to prostitute oneself. I prefer to be taken seriously for what I'm not, remaining humanly unknown, with naturalness and all due respect

Original: A ironia é o primeiro indício de que a consciência se tornou consciente.

Who doesn't feel commands. He who only thinks what is required in order to win, wins.

This world is for those who are born to conquer it, Not for those who dream that are able to conquer it, even if they're right.

Those who really suffer don't form groups, don't go around in a gang. Those who suffer suffer alone.

Everything that happens where we live happens in us. Everything that ceases in what we see ceases in us. Everything that has been, if we saw it when it was, was taken from us when it went away.

Only sterility is noble and dignified. Only killing what never was is elevated and perverse and absurd.

Und so schleppe ich mein Leben damit hin, das zu tun, was ich nicht will, und das zu erträumen, was ich nicht haben kann, absurd wie eine stehen-gebliebene öffentliche Uhr. Nur die zarte, aber feste Sensibilität, der lange, aber vollauf bewusste Traum, bilden in ihrer Gesamtheit mein Halbschattenprivileg.