In order to understand, I destroyed myself. Fernando Pessoa More Quotes by Fernando Pessoa More Quotes From Fernando Pessoa There are metaphors more real than the people who walk in the street. Fernando Pessoa metaphorrealpeople Smell is a strange sight. It evokes sentimental landscapes through a sudden sketching of the subconscious. Fernando Pessoa sketchingsmellsight To choose ways of not acting was ever the concern and scruple of my life. Fernando Pessoa scruplesactingway And I have the others in me. Even when I’m far away from them, I am forced to live with them. Even when I’m all alone, crowds surround me. I have no place to flee to, unless I were to flee from myself. Fernando Pessoa all-alonefar-awaycrowds There's no greater tragedy than an equal intensity, in the same soul or the same man, of the intellectual sentiment and the moral sentiment. For a man to be utterly and absolutely moral, he has to be a bit stupid. For a man to be absolutely intellectual, he has to be a bit immoral. Fernando Pessoa soulstupidmen Fraternity has subtleties. Fernando Pessoa fraternitysubtlety The beauty of a naked body is felt only by the dressed races. Fernando Pessoa nakedbodyrace What is art but the denial of life? Fernando Pessoa denialart Ah, what a morning this is, awakening me to life's stupidity. [98 - Zenith trans.] Fernando Pessoa zenithstupiditymorning All of this passes, and none of it means anything to me.It's all foreign to my fate, and even to fate as a whole. It'sjust unconsciousness, curses of protest when chance hurlsstones, echoes of unknown voices - a collectivemishmash of life. Fernando Pessoa echoesfatemean 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 selfishstrongart I know nothing and my heart aches Fernando Pessoa acheknowsheart The world belongs to who doesn't feel. The primary condition to be a practical man is the absence of sensitivity. Fernando Pessoa absencemenworld I read and am liberated. I acquire objectivity. I cease being myself and so scattered. And what I read, instead of being like a nearly invisible suit that sometimes oppresses me, is the external world’s tremendous and remarkable clarity, the sun that sees everyone, the moon that splotches the still earth with shadows, the wide expanses that end in the sea, the blackly solid trees whose tops greenly wave, the steady peace of ponds on farms, the terraced slopes with their paths overgrown by grape-vines. Fernando Pessoa objectivitymoonsea To live is to be someone else. Feeling is impossible if we feel today as we felt yesterday: to feel today the same thing we felt yesterday is not to feel at all--it's merely to remember today what we felt yesterday, since today we are the living cadaver of yesterday's lost life. Fernando Pessoa yesterdayfeelingstoday Blessed are those who entrust their lives to no one. Fernando Pessoa book-of-disquietblessed-are-thoseblessed Art gives us the illusion of liberation from the sordid business of being. Fernando Pessoa illusiongivingart Art consists in making others feel what we feel. Fernando Pessoa book-of-disquietfeelsart Being a retired major looks like an ideal thing to me. What a pity you couldn't eternally have been just a retired major. Fernando Pessoa retiredpitylooks I have at this moment so many fundamental thoughts, so many truly metaphysical things to say, that I suddenly get tired and decide not to write any more, not to think any more, but to allow the fever of speaking to make me sleepy, and with my eyes closed, like a cat, I play with everything I could have said. Fernando Pessoa tiredcatwriting
