Quotes from Fernando Pessoa

I failed in everything. Since I had no ambition, perhaps I failed in nothing.

La Decadencia es la pérdida total de la inconsciencia, pues la inconsciencia es el fundamento de la vida. Si el corazón pudiera pensar, se detendría.

Si todo hombre fuera juez, todos los hombres estarían locos

Um dos poucos divertimentos intelectuais que ainda restam ao que ainda resta de intelectual na humanidade é a leitura de romances policiais.

To dodge the rules and say useless things sums up the essentially modern attitude.

De resto, com que posso contar comigo? Uma acuidade horrível das sensações, e a compreensão profunda de estar sentindo... Uma inteligência aguda para me destruir, e um poder de sonho sôfrego de me entreter... Uma vontade morta e uma reflexão que a embala, como a' um filho vivo... Sim, croché...

E assim escondo-me atrás da porta, para que a Realidade, quando entra, me não veja. Escondo-me debaixo da mesa, donde, subitamente, prego sustos à Possibilidade. De modo que desligo de mim, como aos dois braços de um amplexo, os dois grandes tédios que me cingem- o tédio de poder viver só o Real, e o tédio de poder conceber só o Possível.

I am no pessimist. Happy are those who can make of their suffering something universal. I don't know if the world is sad or bad, nor do I care, because I feel bored and indifferent in the face of other people's suffering.

Ndjeshmënia jeme ndaj të resë asht e tmerrshme: ndjehem i qetë vetëm në vendet ku kam qenë ma parë.

Insane asylums are full of lunatics with certainties!

To be a retired major seems to me ideal. Too bad it's not possible to have eternally been nothing but a retired major.

Sou navegador num desconhecimento de mim.

All that I've had is like this high and diversely identical sky, tatters of nothing tinged by a distang light, fragments of pseudo-life gilded by death from afar with its sad smile of whole truth. All I've had has amounted to my not knowing how to search, like a feudal lord of swamps at twilight, solitary prince of a city of empty tombs.

il Destino è una specie di persona, e smette di tormentarci se ci mostriamo indifferenti a quello che ci fa.

Tutti sentono. Tutti pensano. Però non tutti sentono con il pensiero o pensano con l'emozione. Per questo le persone sono molte e gli artisti sono pochi.

All that I've had is like this high and diversely identical sky, tatters of nothing tinged by a distant light, fragments of pseudo-life gilded by death from afar with its sad smile of whole truth. All I've had has amounted to my not knowing how to search, like a feudal lord of swamps at twilight, solitary prince of a city of empty tombs.

Success consists in being successful, not in having potential for success. Any wide piece of ground is the potential site of a palace, but there's no palace till it's built.

Strength without agility is a mere mass.

What is art but the denial of life?

Life is good, but Wine is better.

The essence of what I desire is simply this: to sleep away life.

I think of life as an inn where I have to stay until the abyss coach arrives. I don't know where it will take me, for I know nothing.

I asked for very little from life, and even this little was denied me.

Let's absurdify life, from east to west. Let us play hide-and-seek with our consciousness of living.