Art Quotes by Fernando Pessoa

Art consists in making others feel what we feel.

— Fernando Pessoa

Art lies because it's social.

— Fernando Pessoa

What is art but the denial of life?

— Fernando Pessoa

Art gives us the illusion of liberation from the sordid business of being.

— Fernando Pessoa

“Everything we do, in art or in life, is the imperfect copy of what we thought of doing.”

— Fernando Pessoa

The end of lower art is to please, the end of average art is to raise the top, the end of superior…

— Fernando Pessoa

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

— Fernando Pessoa

Why is art beautiful? Because it's useless. Why is life ugly? Because it's all ends and purposes and intentions.

— Fernando Pessoa

“What are ideals but an admission that life is worthless? What is art but the negation of life?”

— Fernando Pessoa

“The downfall of classical ideals made all men potential artists, and therefore bad artists. When art depended on solid construction and the…

— Fernando Pessoa

“Perhaps the novel is a more perfect life and reality, which God creates through us. Perhaps we live only to create it.…

— Fernando Pessoa

“To write is to forget. Literature is the most agreeable way of ignoring life. Music soothes, the visual arts exhilarate, and the…

— Fernando Pessoa

“Literature --which is art married to thought, and realization untainted by reality--seems to me the end towards which all human effort would…

— Fernando Pessoa

“The true danger of romanticism is that the principles through which it rules itself are of such nature that everybody can invoke…

— Fernando Pessoa

“To write is to forget. Literature is the most agreeable way of ignoring life. Music soothes, the visual arts exhilarates, the performing…

— Fernando Pessoa

A great emotion is too selfish ; it takes into itself all the blood of the spirit, and the congestion leaves the…

— Fernando Pessoa