To write is to forget. Literature is the most agreeable way of ignoring life. Music soothes, the visual arts exhilarate, and the performing arts (suc… - Fernando Pessoa

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Engraved portrait of Fernando Pessoa, facing right

To write is to forget. Literature is the most agreeable way of ignoring life. Music soothes, the visual arts exhilarate, and the performing arts (such as acting and dance) entertain. Literature, however, retreats from life by turning it into a slumber. The other arts make no such retreat – some because they use visible and hence vital formulas, others because they live from human life itself.

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About Fernando Pessoa

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.

Portrait adapted from Wikimedia Commons, S.A. e Maria José de Lencastre (Public domain / CC0)

Also Known As

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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Additional quotes by Fernando Pessoa

O valor das coisas não está no tempo que elas duram, mas na intensidade com que acontecem, por isso, existem momentos inesquecíveis, coisas inexplicáveis e pessoas incomparáveis.

"The value of things, are not in the time they endure, but in the intensity they happen, that's why, exist unforgettable moments, inexplicable things and incomparable people.

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