Autism Quote by Fernando Pessoa
““And with a relentlessness that comes from the world's depths, with a persistence that strikes the keys metaphysically, the scales of a piano student keep playing over and over, up and down the physical backbone of my memory. It's the old streets with other people, the same streets that today are different; it's dead people speaking to me through the transparency of their absence; it's remorse for what I did or didn't do; it's the rippling of streams in the night, noises from below in the quiet building. I feel like screaming inside my head. I want to stop, to break, to smash this impossible phonograph record that keeps playing inside me, where it doesn't belong, an intangible torturer. I want my soul, a vehicle taken over by others, to let me off and go on without me. I'm going crazy from having to hear. And in the end it is I – in my odiously impressionable brain, in my thin skin, in my hypersensitive nerves – who am the keys played in scales, O horrible and personal piano of our memory.””
About This Quote
Source Poem: “Autopsicografia” (fragment), 1915
The mind is haunted by relentless memories and emotions that replay like a broken record, creating inner turmoil and a sense of being trapped.
In simple terms: Persistent memories replay, causing inner chaos.
Find ways to quiet the mental replay.
Themes
Mood
Type
When to use this quote
- writing sessions
- therapy
- mindfulness meditation
- artistic creation
Key Concepts
Questions to Reflect On
- What does the “piano” symbolize for you?
- How can you transform painful memories into creative energy?
The metaphor of a piano may oversimplify complex emotional experiences.