Quotes from Fernando Pessoa

Those of us who are curious about life, let us peer out of every door and window, in the weary foreknowledge that we will see nothing new or beautiful.

The child finds the passions, rages and fears that he sees on adult faces vaguely absurd. And is it not true that all our fears, loathings and loves are entirely absurd and vain?

To have occasion to…' In this space the statue of renunciation will be raised.

Today the world belongs only to the stupid, the insensitive and the agitated. Today the right to live and triumph is awarded on virtually the same basis as admission into an insane asylum: an inability to think, amorality, and nervous excitability. 176

Nu am c?utat niciodat? s?-mi tr?iesc via?a. Via?a mea s-a tr?it f?r? ca eu s? vreau sau nu. Am vrut doar s? v?d ca ?i cum n-a? fi avut suflet. Am vrut doar s? v?d ca ?i cum a? fi fost numai ochi.

Sadly I write in my quiet room, alone as I have always been, alone as I will always be. And I wonder if my apparently negligible voice might not embody the essence of thousands of voices, the longing for self-expression of thousands of lives, the patience of millions of souls resigned like my own to their daily lot, their useless dreams, and their hopeless hopes.

Argonotlar, mühim olan yaÅŸamak deÄŸil, denizlere aç?lmak, derlermiÅŸ. Marazi bir duyarl??? olan Argonotlar olarak, biz de diyelim ki hissetmektir mühim olan, yaÅŸamak deÄŸil.

L'animale teme la morte perché vive, e anche l'uomo, e perché gli è ignota. Solo a me è dato di temerla con orrore perché conosco tutta la sua estensione e il suo mistero, perché misuro la sua infinità oscurità

O malmequer que arrancaste Deu-te nada no seu fim, Mas o amor que me arrancaste, Se deu nada, foi a mim.

The great melancholies, the sadnesses filled with tedium, can exist only in an atmosphere of comfort and sober luxury.

No sé si es a mí a quien le sucede, si a todos los que la civilización hizo nacer por segunda vez. Pero me parece que para mí, o para los que sienten como yo, lo artificial ha pasado a ser lo natural, y es lo natural lo que es extraño. No digo bien: lo artificial no ha pasado a ser lo natural; lo natural ha pasado a ser lo diferente

you are today, you are me, because I see you, you are what [I'll be] tomorrow and I love you from the deck rail as when two ships pass, and there's a mysterious longing and regret in their passing.

Who knows for what supreme forces – gods or demons of Truth in whose shadow we roam – I may be nothing but a shiny fly that alights in front of them for a moment or two? A facile hypothesis? Trite observation? Philosophy with no real thought? Maybe. But I didn't think: I felt. It was carnally, directly, with profound and dark horror that I made this ludicrous comparison.

To organize our life in such a way that it becomes a mystery to others, that those who are closest to us will only be closer to not knowing us. That is how I've shaped my life

Life for us is whatever we imagine it to be. To the peasant with his one field, that field is everything, it is an empire. To Caesar with his vast empire which still feels cramped, that empire is a field. The poor man has an empire; the great man only a field. The truth is that we possess nothing but our own sensations; it is on them, then, and not what they perceive, that we must base the reality of our life. But all of this is apropos of nothing.

Siempre he sentido una repugnancia casi física por las cosas secretas, las intrigas, la diplomacia, las sociedades secretas, el ocultismo. Sobre todo siempre me han molestado estas dos últimas cosas: la pretensión que tienen ciertos hombres de saber, mediante un entendimiento con dioses o maestros o Demiurgos –entre ellos, excluidos todos nosotros–, los grandes secretos que son los fundamentos del mundo.

Only abstention is noble and lofty, because it is an acknowledgement that any work we might produce is inevitably inferior, the physical article is always the grotesque shadow of the dreamed work.

Repara bem que a obra que te propões fazer é a mais alta de todas. Sonhar é encontramo-nos. Vais ser o Colombo da tua alma. Vais buscar as suas paisagens. Cuida bem pois em que o teu rumo seja certo e não possam errar os teus instrumentos.

Mi s-a vorbit despre oameni,despre umanitate, Numai c? eu n-am v?zut niciodat? nici oameni,nici umanitate. Am v?zut diver?i oameni vertiginos de diferi?i unii fa?? de al?ii, Fiecare separat de cel?lalt de un spa?iu lipsit de oameni.

Ik had een zeker talent voor vriendschap, maar ik heb nooit vrienden gehad, ofwel omdat ze er niet waren, ofwel omdat de vriendschap die mij voor ogen stond een fout van mijn dromen was.

To think is to destroy.

Nadie comprende a otro. Somos, como dijo el poeta, islas en el mar de la vida; corre entre nosotros el mar que nos define y nos separa. Por más que un alma se esfuerce por saber qué cosa es otra alma, no sabrá sino lo que le diga una palabra.?

Like happiness, the day was taking a long time to arrive, and at that hour, it felt as if it never would.

Desenrolo-me como uma meada multicolor, ou faço comigo figuras de cordel, como as que se tecem nas mãos espetadas e se passam de umas crianças para as outras. Cuido só de que o polegar não falhe o laço que lhe compete. Depois viro a mão e a imagem fica diferente. E recomeço.