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.

Bio from: Wikiquote (CC BY-SA 4.0) · Portrait adapted from: Wikimedia Commons, S.A. e Maria José de Lencastre (Public domain / CC0)

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

Native Name: Fernando António Nogueira Pessoa

Alternative Names: Fernando Antonio Nogueira Pessoa

From Wikidata (CC0)

Engraved portrait of Fernando Pessoa, facing right

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Existo desde el principio del mundo y, desde entonces, soy un ironista.

Here lies, on the small farthest beach,
the Captain of the End.

Original: O que há de mais reles nos sonhos é que todos os têm.

من نفس المكان
يضجر الناس
وأنا من وجودي في ذاتي
أليس خليقاً بيِ ان أضجر؟

روحي تبحث عني..
في الجبال والسهول..
ليتها لا تعثر ابداً عليِّ

هارباً من ذاتي أحيا.
وأنا بذلك حيّ.

- فرناندو بيسوا

لأننى أعرف كيف تمتلك الأشياء الأشد صغرا فن تعذيبى بسهولة، لذلك أتفادى ملامسة أصغر الأشياء.

Sometimes I muse about how wonderful it would be if I could string all my dreams together into one continuous life, a life consisting of entire days full of imaginary companions and created people.

There's no greater tragedy than an equal intensity, in the same soul or the same man, of the intellectual sentiment and the moral sentiment. For a man to be utterly and absolutely moral, he has to be a bit stupid. For a man to be absolutely intellectual, he has to be a bit immoral.

As coisas que errei na vida sei que as encontrarei na morte. Porque a vida é dividida entre quem sou e a sorte.

Não sou nada.
Nunca serei nada.
Não posso querer ser nada.
À parte isso, tenho em mim todos os sonhos do mundo.

Tabacaria e Outros Poemas · 1996 Verified in 2 sources · 1 more available Sign up to see the complete provenance

Portuguese

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'Any road', said Carlyle, 'even this road to Entepfuhl, will take you to the end of the world'. But the Entepfuhl road, if taken in its entirety, and to the end, goes back to Entepfuhl; so Entepfuhl, where we already were, is that very end of the world we were seeking.

There are those that even God exploits, and they are prophets and saints in the vacuousness of the world.

I have to choose what I detest - either dreaming which my intelligence hates, or action, which my sensibility loathes; either action, for which I wasn't born, or dreaming, for which no one was born.

Detesting both, I choose neither; but since I must on occasion either dream or act, I mix the two things together.

I have no philosophy, I have senses . . .
If I speak of Nature it's not because I know what it is
But because I love it, and for that very reason,
Because those who love never know what they love
Or why they love, or what love is.
To love is eternal innocence,
And the only innocence is not to think . .

There is no safe standard to tell man from animals.

By day I am nothing, by night I am I.