Fernando Pessoa ✓

(1888–1935) prose writer Portugal

263 quotes in 2844 categories

[Wikidata] Portuguese poet, writer, and philosopher (1888–1935); creator of the heteronymic system including Alberto Caeiro, Ricardo Reis, Álvaro de Campos, and Bernardo Soares... | [Wikipedia] Fernando António Nogueira de Seabra Pessoa was a Portuguese poet, writer, literary critic, translator, and publisher. He has been described as one of the most significant literary figures of the 20th century and one of the greatest poets in the Portuguese literature. He also wrote in and translated

All Fernando Pessoa Quotes

• When one of my Japanese teacups is broken, I imagine that the real cause was not the careless hand of a maid but the anxieties… Anxieties
• The unnatural and the strange have a perfume of their own Inspirational
• I bear the wounds of all the battles I avoided. All
• Let's buy books so as not to read them; let's go to concerts without caring to hear the music or see who's there; let's take… Book
• I am the suburb of a non-existent town, the prolix commentary on a book never written. I am nobody, nobody. I am a character in… Aerial
• When all by myself, I can think of all kinds of clever remarks, quick comebacks to what no one said, and flashes of witty sociability… All
• The inventor of the mirror poisoned the human heart. Heart
• Be what I think? But I think of being so many things! Funny
• I'm the empty stage where various actors act out various plays. Act
• I'd woken up early, and I took a long time getting ready to exist. Early
• Ah, it's my longing for whom I might have been that distracts and torments me! Ah
• I realize that I was all error and deviation, that I never lived, that I existed only in so far as I filled time with… All
• To know nothing about yourself is to live. To know yourself badly is to think. Badly
• I don't know what I feel or what I want to feel. I don't know what to think or what I am. Feel
• I carry my awareness of defeat like a banner of victory. Awareness
• Blessed are those who entrust their lives to no one. Blessed
• I feel as if I'm always on the verge of waking up. Feel
• I've never done anything but dream. This, and this alone, has been the meaning of my life. My only real concern has been my inner… Alone
• Life is whatever we conceive it to be. Conceive
• We live by action—by acting on desire. Those of us who don't know how to want—whether geniuses or beggars—are related by impotence. Acting
• We never love anyone. What we love is the idea we have of someone. It's our own concept—our own selves—that we love. Anyone
• The essence of what I desire is simply this: to sleep away life. Away Life
• Having never discovered qualities in myself that might attract someone else, I could never believe that anyone felt attracted to me. Anyone
• Friends: not one. Just a few acquaintances who imagine they feel something for me and who might be sorry if a train ran over me… Acquaintance
• But do we really live? To live without knowing what life is - is that living? Inspirational

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