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Quotes About Wisdom

better to supremely not act than to act spottily, inadequately and in vain, like the superfluous, inane, vast majority of men.
~ Fernando Pessoa
13] Incluso pensar así es actuar. Sólo en el devaneo absoluto, donde nada de lo activo interviene, donde al fin hasta nuestra consciencia de nosotros mismos se atasca en el lodo —sólo así, en ese húmedo y blando no-ser, se consigue competentemente renunciar a la acción.   No querer comprender, no analizar... Verse a uno mismo como a la Naturaleza; observar sus propias impresiones como quien observa un campo —esto es la sabiduría.
~ Fernando Pessoa
Io però non ho mai preteso di dire la verità a nessuno, da una parte perché non serve a niente, e dall'altra perché non la conosco. Mio fratello maggiore, Dio onnipotente, credo che neppure lui la conosca, ma queste , tuttavia, sono questioni di famiglia.
~ Fernando Pessoa
To reach the truth we lack both the necessary facts and the intellectual processes that could exhaust all possible interpretations of those facts.
~ Fernando Pessoa
There is no happiness without knowledge, but the knowledge of happiness brings unhappiness, because to know one is happy is to know that one is passing through happiness and, therefore, will soon be obliged to leave it behind. In happiness as in everything, knowledge kills. Not to know, however, is not to exist.
~ Fernando Pessoa
Për njeriun e zakonshëm me ndie domethanë me jetue, e me mendue domethanë me dijtë me jetue. Për mue, me mendue asht me jetue, e me ndie s'asht veçse ushqimi i të menduemit.
~ Fernando Pessoa
And, along with all the other great unfortunates, I've always believed it better to think than to live.
~ Fernando Pessoa
The truly wise man is the one who can keep external events from changing him in any way. To do this, he covers himself with an armour of realities closer to him than the world's facts and through which the facts, modified accordingly, reach him.
~ Fernando Pessoa
O essencial é saber ver, Saber ver sem estar a pensar, Saber ver quando se vê, E nem pensar quando se vê Nem ver quando se pensa.   Mas isso (tristes de nós que trazemos a alma vestida!), Isso exige um estudo profundo, Uma aprendizagem de desaprender E
~ Fernando Pessoa
It is a rule of life that we can and must learn from everyone. There are serious matters in life to be learned from charlatans and bandits, there are philosophies to be gleaned from fools, real lessons of fortitude that come to us by chance and from those who depend on chance. Everything contains everything else.
~ Fernando Pessoa
To act – that is true wisdom. I can be what I want to be, but I have to want whatever it is. Success consists in being successful, not in having the potential for success. Any wide piece of ground is the potential site of a palace, but there's no palace until it's built
~ Fernando Pessoa
Wise is the man who has the potential for height in his muscles but who renounces climbing in his consciousness. By virtue of his gaze, he has all hills, and by virtue of his position, all valleys. The sun that gilds the summits will gild them more for him than for someone at the top who must endure the bright light; and the palace perched high in the woods will be more beautiful for those who see it from the valley than for those who, imprisoned in its rooms, forget it. I
~ Fernando Pessoa
253. … the sacred instinct of having no theories … 254
~ Fernando Pessoa
I've always considered violence, of any type, a particularly cock-eyed example of human stupidity.
~ Fernando Pessoa
Considerar nuestra angustia más profunda como un incidente sin importancia, no sólo en la vida del universo, sino en la de nuestra propia alma, es el principio de la sabiduría.
~ Fernando Pessoa
Only one thing surprises me more than the stupidity with which most men live their lives and that is the intellegence inherent in that stupidity. [...] The wise man makes his life monotonous, for then even the tiniest accident becomes imbued with great significance.
~ Fernando Pessoa
Amar es la eterna inocencia. Y la única inocencia es no pensar.
~ Fernando Pessoa
A criança que pensa em fadas e acredita nas fadas Age como um deus doente, mas como um deus. Porque embora afirme que existe o que não existe Sabe como é que as coisas existem, que é existindo, Sabe que existir existe e não se explica, Sabe que não há razão nenhuma para nada existir, Sabe que ser é estar num ponto Só não sabe que o pensamento não é um ponto qualquer.
~ Fernando Pessoa
Fly, bird, fly away; teach me to disappear! from The Keeper of the Sheep
~ Fernando Pessoa
Wise is the one who does not seek.
~ Fernando Pessoa
Living in a sweet, fluid state of ignorance about all things and about oneself is the only way of life guaranteed to suit and bring comfort to the sage.
~ Fernando Pessoa
Per capire, mi sono distrutto. Capire è dimenticare di amare.
~ Fernando Pessoa
dieser heilige Instinkt, der uns veranlasst, keine Theorien zu haben...
~ Fernando Pessoa
Flashes of awareness that we live an illusion – that, and no more, is what distinguishes the greatest of men.
~ Fernando Pessoa