--- title: "Meaning & Key Takeaway of: I'm going to end a life that I thought…" description: "\"I'm going to end a life that I thought could contain every kind of greatness but that in fact consisted only of my incapacity to really want to be grea..." image: "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/6ff/fernando-pessoa-177_certainty_i-m-going-to-end-a-life-that-i-thought-c_923357.jpg" --- # I'm going to end a life that I thought could contain every… ![“I'm going to end a life that I thought could contain every kind of greatness but that in fact consisted only of my incapacity to really want to be great. Whenever I arrived at a certainty, I remembered that those with the greatest certainties are lunatics.” quote by Fernando Pessoa](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/6ff/fernando-pessoa-177_certainty_i-m-going-to-end-a-life-that-i-thought-c_923357.jpg) [Download](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/6ff/fernando-pessoa-177_certainty_i-m-going-to-end-a-life-that-i-thought-c_923357.jpg) [Open image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/6ff/fernando-pessoa-177_certainty_i-m-going-to-end-a-life-that-i-thought-c_923357.jpg) > “I'm going to end a life that I thought could contain every kind of greatness but that in fact consisted only of my incapacity to really want to be great. Whenever I arrived at a certainty, I remembered that those with the greatest certainties are lunatics.” [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. He reflects on ending a life he believed could be great, realizing that certainty can be madness. **In simple terms:** Great certainty may hide madness. Key Takeaway Question your convictions. Themes existence greatness certainty madness Mood introspective critical Type philosophical motivational When to use this quote - career decisions - creative projects - personal crises - mental health assessment Key Concepts existentialism self‑analysis Questions to Reflect On - What certainties limit you? - How to balance ambition and desire? A Different Perspective May lead to paralysis by over‑analysis. ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ No ratings yet [Certainties Lunatics](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/certainties-lunatics-1445622/) [Certainty](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/certainty/) [Consisted Incapacity](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/consisted-incapacity-1445624/) [Dying](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/dying/) [End Life](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/end-life/) [Ends](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/ends/) [Facts](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/facts/) [Greatness](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/greatness/) [Incapacity](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/incapacity/) [Incapacity Really](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/incapacity-really-1445623/) [Kind](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/kind/) [Life](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/life/) [Lunatics](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/lunatics/) [Remembered](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/remembered/) [Want](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/want/) ## Related quotes > [Man shouldn't be able to see his own face. That's what's most terrible. Nature gave him the possibility of not seeing it, as well…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/fernando-pessoa/man-shouldn-t-be-able-to-see-his-own-face-that-s-what-s-most-terrible/) [Fernando Pessoa](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/fernando-pessoa/) > [“The only thing I feel to be really mine is a huge incapacity, a vast emptiness, an incompetence for everything that is life. I…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/fernando-pessoa/the-only-thing-i-feel-to-be-really-mine-is-a-huge-incapacity-a-vast/) [Fernando Pessoa](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/fernando-pessoa/) > [The fundamental premise of liberalism is the moral incapacity of the American people.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/alan-keyes/the-fundamental-premise-of-liberalism-is-the-moral-incapacity-of-the/) [Alan Keyes](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/alan-keyes/) > [“Hell is the incapacity to be other than the creature one finds oneself ordinarily behaving as.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/aldous-huxley/hell-is-the-incapacity-to-be-other-than-the-creature-one-finds/) [Aldous Huxley](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/aldous-huxley/) > [Many of us grow up thinking of mistakes as bad, viewing errors as evidence of fundamental incapacity. This negative thinking pattern can create a…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/tony-buzan/many-of-us-grow-up-thinking-of-mistakes-as-bad-viewing-errors-as/) [Tony Buzan](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/tony-buzan/) > [Capable people do not understand incapacity; clever people do not understand stupidity.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/doris-lessing/capable-people-do-not-understand-incapacity-clever-people-do-not/) [Doris Lessing](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/doris-lessing/) > [Some Native people suggest that one should test how cold the hands are by touching the thumb to the little finger of the same…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/mors-kochanski/some-native-people-suggest-that-one-should-test-how-cold-the-hands/) [Mors Kochanski](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/mors-kochanski/) > [Carlyle, a man of strong words and attitudes, a rhetorician out of necessity, constantly aroused by the craving for a strong faithas well as…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/friedrich-nietzsche/carlyle-a-man-of-strong-words-and-attitudes-a-rhetorician-out-of/) [Friedrich Nietzsche](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/friedrich-nietzsche/) > [Cunning and treachery are the offspring of incapacity.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/francois-de-la-rochefoucauld/cunning-and-treachery-are-the-offspring-of-incapacity/) [Francois de La Rochefoucauld](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/francois-de-la-rochefoucauld/) > [In the stress of modern life, how little room is left for that most comfortable vanity that whispers in our ears that failures are…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/agnes-repplier/in-the-stress-of-modern-life-how-little-room-is-left-for-that-most/) [Agnes Repplier](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/agnes-repplier/) > [“‎"The incapacity of sound sleep denotes a mind sorely wounded.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/charles-brockden-brown/the-incapacity-of-sound-sleep-denotes-a-mind-sorely-wounded/) [Charles Brockden Brown](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/charles-brockden-brown/) > [Calvin: Know what I pray for? Hobbes: What? Calvin: The strength to change what I can, the inability to accept what I can't, and…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/bill-watterson/calvin-know-what-i-pray-for-hobbes-what-calvin-the-strength-to-change/) [Bill Watterson](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/bill-watterson/) > [It is the cult of self that is killing the United States. This cult has within it the classic traits of psychopaths: superficial charm,…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/chris-hedges/it-is-the-cult-of-self-that-is-killing-the-united-states-this-cult/) [Chris Hedges](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/chris-hedges/) > [Closed some doors, not because of pride, incapacity or arrogance, but simply because they no longer lead somewhere.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/frenz-jeffrey/closed-some-doors-not-because-of-pride-incapacity-or-arrogance-but/) [Frenz Jeffrey](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/frenz-jeffrey/) > [ \[The Community's\] crosses and trials give me confidence. But I derive my hope above all, and most especially, from our utter incapacity, for it… ](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/theodore-guerin/the-community-s-crosses-and-trials-give-me-confidence-but-i-derive-my/) [Theodore Guerin](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/theodore-guerin/) ## 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 Certainty quotes > [A common fallacy in much of the adverse criticism to which science is subjected today is that it claims certainty, infallibility and complete emotional…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/cyril-norman-hinshelwood/a-common-fallacy-in-much-of-the-adverse-criticism-to-which-science-is/) [Cyril Norman Hinshelwood](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/cyril-norman-hinshelwood/) > [Sometimes we have the absolute certainty there's something inside us that's so hideous and monstrous that if we ever search it out we won't…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/hubert-selby-jr/sometimes-we-have-the-absolute-certainty-there-s-something-inside-us/) [Hubert Selby, Jr](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/hubert-selby-jr/) > [The past and the future become unimportant. There is only that moment, and the incredible certainty that everything under the sun has been written…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/paulo-coelho/the-past-and-the-future-become-unimportant-there-is-only-that-moment/) [Paulo Coelho](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/paulo-coelho/) > [In the mental disturbance and effort of writing, what sustains you is the certainty that on every page there is something left unsaid.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/cesare-pavese/in-the-mental-disturbance-and-effort-of-writing-what-sustains-you-is/) [Cesare Pavese](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/cesare-pavese/) > [Of course I doubt. I do not practice a certainty. I practice a faith.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/robert-breault/of-course-i-doubt-i-do-not-practice-a-certainty-i-practice-a-faith/) [Robert Breault](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/robert-breault/) > [The world is a wonderfully weird place, consensual reality is significantly flawed, no institution can be trusted, certainty is a mirage, security a delusion,…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/tom-robbins/the-world-is-a-wonderfully-weird-place-consensual-reality-is/) [Tom Robbins](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/tom-robbins/) > [As a businessman, I know that businesses need certainty.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/bill-foster/as-a-businessman-i-know-that-businesses-need-certainty/) [Bill Foster](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/bill-foster/) > [It is suggested that in domestic violence at least the presence or absence of a firearm, or of any other type of weapon, is…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/colin-greenwood/it-is-suggested-that-in-domestic-violence-at-least-the-presence-or/) [Colin Greenwood](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/colin-greenwood/) > [Every single person who is a member of our party deserves to have certainty. They deserve to know that my attention and focus is…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/annamie-paul/every-single-person-who-is-a-member-of-our-party-deserves-to-have/) [Annamie Paul](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/annamie-paul/) > [The significance and volume of repairs that are needed across the country demand that we give state and local governments the long-term certainty they…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/sam-graves/the-significance-and-volume-of-repairs-that-are-needed-across-the/) [Sam Graves](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/sam-graves/) > [“Death is the one great certainty in life. That’s what my dad used to say. Nothing else is certain. Not love. Not happiness. Not…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/mila-gray/death-is-the-one-great-certainty-in-life-that-s-what-my-dad-used-to/) [Mila Gray](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/mila-gray/) > [ \[I\]f in other sciences we should arrive at certainty without doubt and truth without error, it behooves us to place the foundations of knowledge… ](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/roger-bacon/i-f-in-other-sciences-we-should-arrive-at-certainty-without-doubt-and/) [Roger Bacon](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/roger-bacon/) > [Do not lose hope; St. Joseph also experienced moments of difficulty, but he never lost faith and was able to overcome them, in the…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/pope-francis/do-not-lose-hope-st-joseph-also-experienced-moments-of-difficulty-but/) [Pope Francis](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/pope-francis/) > [As the future is never known with certainty, the evaluation of the prospective benefits requires the formation of expectations. An acceptable house, partner or…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/dale-t-mortensen/as-the-future-is-never-known-with-certainty-the-evaluation-of-the/) [Dale T. Mortensen](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/dale-t-mortensen/) > [Finding someone that trusted my vision helped me find certainty in who I was.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/syd/finding-someone-that-trusted-my-vision-helped-me-find-certainty-in/) [Syd](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/syd/) [Browse all 1,776 Certainty quotes ](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/certainty/) ```json { "@context": "https://schema.org", "@graph": [ { "@type": "Quotation", "text": "I'm going to end a life that I thought could contain every kind of greatness but that in fact consisted only of my incapacity to really want to be great. 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