Fernando Pessoa Quotes

Action men are the unvoluntary slaves of wise men.

Between me and life is a faint glass. No matter how sharply I see and understand life, I cannot touch it.

Eu adoro todas as coisas E o meu coração é um albergue aberto toda a noite. Tenho pela vida um interesse ávido Que busca compreendê-la sentindo-a muito. Amo tudo, animo tudo, empresto humanidade a tudo, Aos homens e às pedras, às almas e às máquinas.

I have more souls than one.
There are more 'I's than myself.
And still I exist
Indifferent to all.
I silence them: I speak.

Be what I think? But I think of being so many things!

No intelligent idea can gain general acceptance unless some stupidity is mixed in with it

My soul is a hidden orchestra; I know not what instruments, what fiddlestrings and harps, drums and tamboura I sound and clash inside myself. All I hear is the symphony.

Civilization consists in giving something an unfitting name, then dream about the result. And indeed the false name and the real dream create a new reality. The object really becomes another, because we turned it into another one. We manufacture realities.

To live is to be someone else. Feeling is impossible if we feel today as we felt yesterday: to feel today the same thing we felt yesterday is not to feel at all — it's merely to remember today what we felt yesterday, since today we are the living cadaver of yesterday's lost life.

And I don't know what I feel or what I want to feel. I don't know what to think or what I am.

Original: Entre mim e a vida há um vidro ténue. por mais nitidamente que eu veja e compreenda a vida, eu não lhe posso tocar.

I look for myself but find no one. I belong to the chrysanthemum hour of bright flowers placed in tall vases. I should make an ornament of my soul.

Yes, talking to people makes me sleepy.

Why is art beautiful? Because it's useless. Why is life ugly? Because it's all aims, objectives and intentions.

Everything belongs to someone else, except the pain of not having it.