Fernando Pessoa Quotes - Page 4

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• We are two abysses - a well staring at the sky.

  Fernando Pessoa

  Sky, Two, Abyss

  Fernando Pessoa (1996). “The Book of Disquietude: By Bernardo Soares, Assistant Bookkeeper in the City of Lisbon”

  35 Copy quote

• 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.

  Fernando Pessoa

  Successful, Reality, Pieces

  Fernando Pessoa (2002). “The Book of Disquiet”, p.116, Penguin UK

  12 Copy quote

• The end of lower art is to please, the end of average art is to raise the top, the end of superior art is to free.

  Fernando Pessoa

  Art, Average, Ends

  26 Copy quote

• Writing is like paying myself a formal visit.

  Fernando Pessoa

  Writing, Formal

  Fernando Pessoa (2017). “The Book of Disquiet: The Complete Edition”, p.298, Serpent's Tail

  7 Copy quote

• Direct experience is the evasion, or hiding place of those devoid of imagination.

  Fernando Pessoa

  Imagination, Hiding, Evasion

  "A Factless Autobiography". Book by Fernando Pessoa, Richard Zenith Edition, Lisbon, p. 163, 2006.

  7 Copy quote

• Ah, it's my longing for whom I might have been that distracts and torments me!

  Fernando Pessoa

  Might, Longing, Book Of Disquiet

  Fernando Pessoa (2002). “The Book of Disquiet”, p.54, Penguin UK

  8 Copy quote

• Life is a thread that someone entangled.

  Fernando Pessoa

  Life Is, Thread

  "The Book of Disquiet". Book by Fernando Pessoa, 1982.

  7 Copy quote

• One never lives so intensely as when one has been thinking hard.

  Fernando Pessoa

  Thinking, Thinking Hard, Has Beens

  Fernando Pessoa (2010). “The Book of Disquiet”, p.74, Profile Books

  7 Copy quote

• There’s enough metaphysics in not thinking about anything.

  Fernando Pessoa

  Thinking, Enough, Metaphysics

  Fernando Pessoa (2012). “A Centenary Pessoa”, p.87, Carcanet

  4 Copy quote

• I'm the empty stage where various actors act out various plays.

  Fernando Pessoa

  Play, Actors, Empty

  Fernando Pessoa (2006). “A Little Larger Than the Entire Universe: Selected Poems”, p.15, Penguin

  15 Copy quote

• Everything is theater.

  Fernando Pessoa

  Theater

  Fernando Pessoa (2007). “The Selected Prose of Fernando Pessoa”, p.263, Grove/Atlantic, Inc.

  6 Copy quote

• Life is whatever we conceive it to be.

  Fernando Pessoa

  Life Is

  Fernando Pessoa, Richard Zenith (1996). “Book of Disquietude”, Carcanet Press Limited

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• Inch by inch I conquered the inner terrain I was born with. Bit by bit I reclaimed the swamp in which I'd languished. I gave birth to my infinite being, but I had to wrench myself out of me with forceps.

  Fernando Pessoa

  Swamps, Birth, Infinite

  32 Copy quote

• I crave time in all its duration, and I want to be myself unconditionally.

  Fernando Pessoa

  Want, Duration, Crave

  4 Copy quote

• Give to each emotion a personality, to each state of mind a soul.

  Fernando Pessoa

  Giving, Personality, Soul

  Fernando Pessoa (2010). “The Book of Disquiet”, p.9, Profile Books

  4 Copy quote

• And, like the great damned souls, I shall always feel that thinking is worth more than living.

  Fernando Pessoa

  Thinking, Soul, Feels

  14 Copy quote

• I am the escaped one, After I was born They locked me up inside me But I left. My soul seeks me, Through hills and valley, I hope my soul Never finds me.

  Fernando Pessoa

  Soul, Valleys, Hills

  6 Copy quote

• The beauty of a naked body is felt only by the dressed races.

  Fernando Pessoa

  Race, Naked, Body

  "The Book of Disquiet". Book by Fernando Pessoa, p.75, 1982.

  8 Copy quote

• All beginnings are involuntary.

  Fernando Pessoa

  Involuntary

  "Message". Book by Fernando Pessoa. Poem "O Conde D. Henrique", verse 1, 1934.

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• A great emotion is too selfish ; it takes into itself all the blood of the spirit, and the congestion leaves the hands too cold to write. Three sorts of emotion produce great poetry - strong but quick emotions, seized upon for art as soon as they have passed, but not before they have passed ; strong and deep emotions in their remembrance along time after ; and false emotions, that is to say, emotions felt in the intellect. Not insincerity, but a translated sincerity, is the basis of all art.

  Fernando Pessoa

  Strong, Art, Selfish

  Fernando Pessoa (1988). “Always Astonished: Selected Prose”, p.53, City Lights Books

  6 Copy quote

• Life is an experimental journey undertaken involuntarily. It is a journey of the spirit through the material world and, since it is the spirit that travels, it is the spirit that is experienced. That is why there exist contemplative souls who have lived more intensely, more widely, more tumultuously than others who have lived their lives purely externally. The end result is what matters. What one felt was what one experienced. One retires to bed as wearily from having dreamed as from having done hard physical labor. One never lives so intensely as when one has been thinking hard.

  Fernando Pessoa

  Thinking, Journey, What Matters

  6 Copy quote

• I want to be a work of art, at least in my soul, since I can’t be one in my body.

  Fernando Pessoa

  Art, Soul, Body

  Fernando Pessoa (1996). “The Book of Disquietude: By Bernardo Soares, Assistant Bookkeeper in the City of Lisbon”

  4 Copy quote

• Ah, what a morning this is, awakening me to life's stupidity. [98 - Zenith trans.]

  Fernando Pessoa

  Morning, Stupidity, Zenith

  9 Copy quote

• My joy is as painful as my pain.

  Fernando Pessoa

  Pain, Joy, Painful

  "The Book of Disquiet". Book by Fernando Pessoa (1982). Translated by Richard Zenith, p. 100, 2006.

  7 Copy quote

• I'm astounded whenever I finish something. Astounded and distressed. My perfectionist instinct should inhibit me from finishing; it should inhibit me from even beginning. But I get distracted and start doing something. What I achieve is not the product of an act of my will but of my will's surrender. I begin because I don't have the strength to think; I finish because I don't have the courage to quit. This book is my cowardice.

  Fernando Pessoa

  Book, Writing, Thinking

  "The Book of Disquiet".

  47 Copy quote

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