Fernando Pessoa Quotes

Against destiny I fulfilled my duty . Uselessly? No, for I fulfilled it.

on the road halfway between faith and criticism stands the inn of reason. reason is faith in what can be understood without faith, but it's still a faith, since to understand presupposes that there's something understandable.

The blighter that is at the end of the sea
On the pitch-black night raised itself flying;
Round the vessel it flew three times,
Three times it flew creaking,
And said, 'Who dared pierce
Into my dens that I do not reveal,
My black ceilings of the end of the world?'
And the helmsman said, trembling,
'His Majesty King John the Second!' 'Whose sails are these then which I rub against?
Whose the keels I see and hear?'
Said the blighter, and rolled three times,
Three times it rolled filthy and bulky,
'Who attempts what is solely my power,
I who abide where no one ever could see me
And who drip the fears of the depthless sea?'
And the helmsman trembled, and said,
'His Majesty King John the Second!' Three times he raised his hands from the helm,
Three times he had them rooted on the helm,
And said after trembling three times,
'Here at the helm I am more than myself:
I am a People who wants the sea that is yours;
And more than the blighter, that my soul fears
And rolls on the darkness of the end of the world,
Orders the will, that ties me at the helm,
Of His Majesty King John the Second!'

لا حــلّ أمامي إلا أن أموت قبلهم، / لا مخرج أمامي إلا أن أتسلق الجدار الكبير... / إن بقيت، سيجبرونني على أن أصبح شخصا اجتماعيا...

All our abstract intelligence is good for is constructing systems, or semi-systematic ideas, which for animals is a simple matter of lying in the sun.

His voice was hesitant and colourless, as in those who hope for nothing because it's perfectly useless to hope.

The beauty of a naked body is felt only by the dressed races.

Seeing and hearing are the only noble things in life. The other senses are plebeian and carnal. The only aristocracy is never to touch. Avoid getting close – that's true nobility.

You breathe better when you're rich.

My head and the universe ache me.

O homem não difere do animal senão em saber que o não é. É a primeira luz, que não é mais que treva visível. É o começo, porque ver a treva é ter a luz dela. É o fim, porque é o saber, pela vista, que se nasceu cego. Assim o animal se torna homem pela ignorância que nele nasce

Original: Paso tempos, passo silêncios, mudos sem forma passam por mim.

And leaning out the window, enjoying the day above the varying volume of the entire city, only one thought swells my soul – the intimate will to die, to finish, not to see more light over any city, not to think, not to feel, to leave behind like wrapping paper the course of the sun and the days, to rid myself, at the edge of the grand bed, as of a heavy suit, of the involuntary effort to be.

Se te é impossível viver só, nasceste escravo.

Let's adopt all the poses and gestures of something we aren't and don't wish to be, and don't even wish to be taken for being.
Let's buy books so as not to read them; let's go to concerts without caring to hear the music or see who's there; let's take long walks because we're sick of walking; and let's spend whole days in the country, just because it bores us. [23](Zenith trans.)