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To live is to be other. It’s not even possible to feel, if…

“To live is to be other. It’s not even possible to feel, if one feels today what he felt yesterday. To feel today what one felt yesterday isn’t to feel – it’s to remember today what was felt yesterday, to be today’s living corpse of what yesterday was lived and lost. To erase everything from the…” quote by Fernando Pessoa
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““To live is to be other. It’s not even possible to feel, if one feels today what he felt yesterday. To feel today what one felt yesterday isn’t to feel – it’s to remember today what was felt yesterday, to be today’s living corpse of what yesterday was lived and lost. To erase everything from the slate from one day to the next, to be new with each new morning, in a perpetual revival of our emotional virginity – this, and only this, is worth being or having, to be or have what we imperfectly are. This dawn is the first dawn of the world. Never did this pink colour yellowing to a warm white so tinge, towards the west, the face of the buildings whose windowpane eyes gaze upon the silence brought by the growing light. There was never this hour, nor this light, nor this person that’s me. What will be tomorrow will be something else, and what I see will be seen by reconstituted eyes, full of a new vision. High city hills! Great marvels of architecture that the steep slopes secure and make even greater, motley chaos of heaped up buildings that the daylight weaves together with bright spots and shadows – 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.””

Fernando Pessoa

About This Quote

This interpretation was drafted with AI assistance. It is one reading of the quote, not the author's own explanation.

The passage reflects on the fluidity of identity and feeling, emphasizing continual renewal and the impossibility of fully recapturing past emotions

In simple terms: Identity and emotions constantly change; renewal is essential

Key Takeaway

Embrace change and let go of past selves

Themes

philosophy existentialism poetry

Mood

melancholic hopeful contemplative

Type

poetic philosophical

When to use this quote

  • personal growth
  • creative writing
  • mindfulness
  • artistic inspiration

Key Concepts

selfhood memory impermanence

Questions to Reflect On

  • How does constant change affect personal identity?
  • Can we find value in remembering the past?
A Different Perspective

May idealize perpetual novelty, ignoring continuity and stability

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