--- title: "Meaning & Key Takeaway of: I’m certain, but my certainty is a lie…" description: "\"“I’m certain, but my certainty is a lie. To be certain is to not be seeing. The day after tomorrow doesn’t exist. This is what exists: A blue sky that’..." image: "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/324/fernando-pessoa-177_blue-sky_i-m-certain-but-my-certainty-is-a-lie-to_1084886.jpg" --- # I’m certain, but my certainty is a lie. To be certain is… ![“I’m certain, but my certainty is a lie. To be certain is to not be seeing. The day after tomorrow doesn’t exist. This is what exists: A blue sky that’s a bit hazy and some white clouds on the horizon, With a dark smudge underneath, as if they might turn black. This is what today is, And since for…” quote by Fernando Pessoa](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/324/fernando-pessoa-177_blue-sky_i-m-certain-but-my-certainty-is-a-lie-to_1084886.jpg) [Download](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/324/fernando-pessoa-177_blue-sky_i-m-certain-but-my-certainty-is-a-lie-to_1084886.jpg) [Open image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/324/fernando-pessoa-177_blue-sky_i-m-certain-but-my-certainty-is-a-lie-to_1084886.jpg) > ““I’m certain, but my certainty is a lie. To be certain is to not be seeing. The day after tomorrow doesn’t exist. This is what exists: A blue sky that’s a bit hazy and some white clouds on the horizon, With a dark smudge underneath, as if they might turn black. This is what today is, And since for the time being today is everything, this is everything. I might be dead—who knows?—the day after tomorrow, In which case the storm that will strike the day after tomorrow Will be a different storm than it would be if I hadn’t died. I realize that the storm doesn’t fall from my eyes, But if I’m no longer in this world, the world will be different— There will be one person less— And the storm, falling in a different world, won’t be the same storm. In any case, the storm that’s going to fall will be the one falling when it falls. 10 JULY 1930”” [Fernando Pessoa](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/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 speaker doubts absolute certainty, sees existence as fleeting, and reflects on how personal absence would alter the world, emphasizing impermanence and the inevitability of events. **In simple terms:** Life is uncertain; our presence shapes reality. Key Takeaway Embrace uncertainty and act in the present. Themes certaintyertainty existence impermanence Mood thoughtful introspective Type poetic philosophical When to use this quote - making decisions - coping with loss - creative writing Key Concepts philosophy subjectivity ephemerality Questions to Reflect On - What does certainty mean to you? - How do you find meaning amid impermanence? A Different Perspective May lead to paralysis if over‑analyzed. ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ No ratings yet [Blue sky](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/blue-sky/) [White clouds](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/white-clouds/) ## Related quotes > [Attempt what is not certain. Certainty may or may not come later. It may then be a valuable delusion.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/richard-diebenkorn/attempt-what-is-not-certain-certainty-may-or-may-not-come-later-it/) [Richard Diebenkorn](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/richard-diebenkorn/) > [“What’s stopping you from moving forward? The need to be certain. Certainty is prison. Break free and you’ll be free.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/richie-norton/what-s-stopping-you-from-moving-forward-the-need-to-be-certain/) [Richie Norton](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/richie-norton/) > [I am certain there is too much certainty in the world.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/michael-crichton/i-am-certain-there-is-too-much-certainty-in-the-world/) [Michael Crichton](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/michael-crichton/) > [I'd say the biggest difference is knowing you can do something. You can sit here and say, 'I believe I can get a hundred…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/jos-buttler/i-d-say-the-biggest-difference-is-knowing-you-can-do-something-you/) [Jos Buttler](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/jos-buttler/) > [Be alone even when there's a million people around, because tomorrow it will be a different million people.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/feist/be-alone-even-when-there-s-a-million-people-around-because-tomorrow/) [Feist](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/feist/) > [The boy who expects every morning to open into a new world finds that today is like yesterday, but he believes tomorrow will be…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/charles-dudley-warner/the-boy-who-expects-every-morning-to-open-into-a-new-world-finds-that/) [Charles Dudley Warner](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/charles-dudley-warner/) > [What keeps you in this business is the thought that maybe tomorrow will be different.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/walker-hayes/what-keeps-you-in-this-business-is-the-thought-that-maybe-tomorrow/) [Walker Hayes](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/walker-hayes/) > [Whenever your sad abOut wHats going on in Your liFe, just reMemBer oNe permanent fAct: EVERYTHING changes TomoRRow might be DIFFERENT.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/by-me/whenever-your-sad-about-whats-going-on-in-your-life-just-remember-one/) By ME > [If he's not treating you right today, tomorrow will not be any different!..](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/gbatiste/if-he-s-not-treating-you-right-today-tomorrow-will-not-be-any/) [GBatiste](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/gbatiste/) > [“Everyday starts as a repetition of the previous day & ends so with the hope that tomorrow will be no different.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/anonymous/everyday-starts-as-a-repetition-of-the-previous-day-ends-so-with-the/) [Anonymous](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/anonymous/) > [The belief that tomorrow is a different place from today is certainly a unique hallmark of our species.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/douglas-coupland/the-belief-that-tomorrow-is-a-different-place-from-today-is-certainly/) [Douglas Coupland](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/douglas-coupland/) > [“Now is not time to give up. Tomorrow will be different. Resurrect the strenght in the golden dreams that has brought you thus far.…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/darmie-orem/now-is-not-time-to-give-up-tomorrow-will-be-different-resurrect-the/) [Darmie Orem](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/darmie-orem/) > [Although tomorrow might be your sadness, you have to prepare yourself, accept the truth, and let it be. Because what you think today and…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/ky-vanchhay/although-tomorrow-might-be-your-sadness-you-have-to-prepare-yourself/) [Ky Vanchhay](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/ky-vanchhay/) > [Tomorrow, I might be in a different mood and you wouldn't recognize my voice.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/nina-simone/tomorrow-i-might-be-in-a-different-mood-and-you-wouldn-t-recognize-my/) [Nina Simone](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/nina-simone/) > [Make it so today is not like yesterday and tomorrow will be different FOREVER.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/tony-robbins/make-it-so-today-is-not-like-yesterday-and-tomorrow-will-be-different/) [Tony Robbins](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/tony-robbins/) ## More by Fernando Pessoa > [Everything interests me, but nothing holds me.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/fernando-pessoa/everything-interests-me-but-nothing-holds-me/) [Fernando Pessoa](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/fernando-pessoa/) > [“If only, I feel now, if only I could be someone able to see all this as if he had no other relation with…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/fernando-pessoa/if-only-i-feel-now-if-only-i-could-be-someone-able-to-see-all-this-as/) [Fernando Pessoa](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/fernando-pessoa/) > [What's given, in fact, always depends on the person or thing it's given to. A minor incident in the street brings the cook to…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/fernando-pessoa/what-s-given-in-fact-always-depends-on-the-person-or-thing-it-s-given/) [Fernando Pessoa](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/fernando-pessoa/) > [Smell is a strange sight. It evokes sentimental landscapes through a sudden sketching of the subconscious.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/fernando-pessoa/smell-is-a-strange-sight-it-evokes-sentimental-landscapes-through-a/) [Fernando Pessoa](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/fernando-pessoa/) > [“Tudo vale a pena quando a alma não é pequena”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/fernando-pessoa/tudo-vale-a-pena-quando-a-alma-n-o-pequena/) [Fernando Pessoa](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/fernando-pessoa/) > [“no nostalgia hurts as much as nostalgia for things that never existed!”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/fernando-pessoa/no-nostalgia-hurts-as-much-as-nostalgia-for-things-that-never-existed/) [Fernando Pessoa](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/fernando-pessoa/) > [pg.9 "In my heart there's a peaceful anguish, and my calm is made of resignation.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/fernando-pessoa/pg-9-in-my-heart-there-s-a-peaceful-anguish-and-my-calm-is-made-of/) [Fernando Pessoa](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/fernando-pessoa/) > [“The feelings that hurt most, the motions that sting most, are those that are absurd; the longing for impossible things, precisely because they are…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/fernando-pessoa/the-feelings-that-hurt-most-the-motions-that-sting-most-are-those/) [Fernando Pessoa](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/fernando-pessoa/) > [“I try to say what I feel Without thinking about what I feel. I try to place words right next to my idea So…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/fernando-pessoa/i-try-to-say-what-i-feel-without-thinking-about-what-i-feel-i-try-to/) [Fernando Pessoa](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/fernando-pessoa/) > [Have you ever considered, beloved other, how invisible we are to each other? We look at each other without seeing. We listen to each…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/fernando-pessoa/have-you-ever-considered-beloved-other-how-invisible-we-are-to-each/) [Fernando Pessoa](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/fernando-pessoa/) > [“To associate is to die. Only my consciousness of myself is real for me; other people are hazy phenomena in this consciousness, and it…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/fernando-pessoa/to-associate-is-to-die-only-my-consciousness-of-myself-is-real-for-me/) [Fernando Pessoa](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/fernando-pessoa/) > [“When it comes to dreams, I’m no different from the errand boy and the seamstress. The only thing that distinguishes me from them is…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/fernando-pessoa/when-it-comes-to-dreams-i-m-no-different-from-the-errand-boy-and-the/) [Fernando Pessoa](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/fernando-pessoa/) > [“No intelligent idea can gain general acceptance unless some stupidity is mixed in with it. Collective thought is stupid because it’s collective. Nothing passes…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/fernando-pessoa/no-intelligent-idea-can-gain-general-acceptance-unless-some-stupidity/) [Fernando Pessoa](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/fernando-pessoa/) > [God gave the sea the danger and the abyss, but it was in it that He mirrored the sky.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/fernando-pessoa/god-gave-the-sea-the-danger-and-the-abyss-but-it-was-in-it-that-he/) [Fernando Pessoa](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/fernando-pessoa/) > [“Everything that surrounds us becomes part of us, it seeps into us with every experience of the flesh and of life and, like the…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/fernando-pessoa/everything-that-surrounds-us-becomes-part-of-us-it-seeps-into-us-with/) [Fernando Pessoa](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/fernando-pessoa/) [Explore all 781 Fernando Pessoa quotes ](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/fernando-pessoa/) ## More Blue sky quotes > [Summer explodes into Portland. In early June the heat was there but not the color--the green were still pale and tentative, the morning had…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/lauren-oliver/summer-explodes-into-portland-in-early-june-the-heat-was-there-but/) [Lauren Oliver](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/lauren-oliver/) > [My beloved like a jewel on my crown, In my vast and blue sky you are like a full-moon. I wish to stay entrapped…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/ranjan-dey/my-beloved-like-a-jewel-on-my-crown-in-my-vast-and-blue-sky-you-are/) [Ranjan Dey](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/ranjan-dey/) > [As a female pilot, the sacred rose garden in my heart is the motherland's blue sky.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/liu-yang/as-a-female-pilot-the-sacred-rose-garden-in-my-heart-is-the/) [Liu Yang](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/liu-yang/) > [I'm a New York kid, so when I saw that plane that hit the first building, I suspected it was terrorism - blue sky…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/jack-keane/i-m-a-new-york-kid-so-when-i-saw-that-plane-that-hit-the-first/) [Jack Keane](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/jack-keane/) > [The night walked down the sky with the moon in her hand.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/frederic-lawrence-knowles/the-night-walked-down-the-sky-with-the-moon-in-her-hand/) Frederic Lawrence Knowles > [“She loved everything around, turquoise blue sky and calm sea, and the holy mountain, and fragrant woods on it, and monasteries and hermitages, and…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/osyp-nazaruk/she-loved-everything-around-turquoise-blue-sky-and-calm-sea-and-the/) [Osyp Nazaruk](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/osyp-nazaruk/) > [I have felt a presence that disturbs me with the joy of elevated thoughts; a sense sublime of something far more deeply interfused, whose…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/william-wordsworth/i-have-felt-a-presence-that-disturbs-me-with-the-joy-of-elevated/) [William Wordsworth](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/william-wordsworth/) > [“I turn and gaze at the bright blue sky, squinting. It’s like surfacing for air after giving up hope, after resigning to drown, suffocating”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/katie-klein/i-turn-and-gaze-at-the-bright-blue-sky-squinting-it-s-like-surfacing/) [Katie Klein](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/katie-klein/) > [“All at once the hard, cold earth seemed to explode. The brown surface of the world dissolved and in its place was an impossible,…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/lauren-oliver/all-at-once-the-hard-cold-earth-seemed-to-explode-the-brown-surface/) [Lauren Oliver](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/lauren-oliver/) > [When I look like this into the blue sky, it seems so deep, so peaceful, so full of a mysterious tenderness, that I could…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/george-macdonald/when-i-look-like-this-into-the-blue-sky-it-seems-so-deep-so-peaceful/) [George MacDonald](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/george-macdonald/) > [“The stone will melt in tears Because I can’t remain closed to you forever. I can’t escape without being conquered. From the blue sky…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/anonymous/the-stone-will-melt-in-tears-because-i-can-t-remain-closed-to-you/) [Anonymous](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/anonymous/) > [Look at the bow in the cloud, in the very rain itself. That is a sign that the sun, though you cannot see it,…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/charles-kingsley/look-at-the-bow-in-the-cloud-in-the-very-rain-itself-that-is-a-sign/) [Charles Kingsley](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/charles-kingsley/) > [It's like my having to walk down thousands and thousands of white marble stairs...and nothing but a very very blue sky, very blue...and I'd…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/edie-sedgwick/it-s-like-my-having-to-walk-down-thousands-and-thousands-of-white/) [Edie Sedgwick](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/edie-sedgwick/) > [A look from you is as blinding as the sun, As stunning as your eyes I lose myself in. A look from you is…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/charming-edwin/a-look-from-you-is-as-blinding-as-the-sun-as-stunning-as-your-eyes-i/) Charming Edwin > [We had no idea what we were in for when we started Blue Sky. We just had an idea of what we wanted to…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/chris-wedge/we-had-no-idea-what-we-were-in-for-when-we-started-blue-sky-we-just/) [Chris Wedge](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/chris-wedge/) [Browse all 498 Blue sky quotes ](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/blue-sky/) ```json { "@context": "https://schema.org", "@graph": [ { "@type": "Quotation", "text": "“I’m certain, but my certainty is a lie. To be certain is to not be seeing. The day after tomorrow doesn’t exist. This is what exists: A blue sky that’s a bit hazy and some white clouds on the horizon, With a dark smudge underneath, as if they might turn black. This is what today is, And since for the time being today is everything, this is everything. I might be dead—who knows?—the day after tomorrow, In which case the storm that will strike the day after tomorrow Will be a different storm than it would be if I hadn’t died. I realize that the storm doesn’t fall from my eyes, But if I’m no longer in this world, the world will be different— There will be one person less— And the storm, falling in a different world, won’t be the same storm. 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