--- title: "Meaning & Key Takeaway of: Perhaps everything in life is the…" description: "\"“Perhaps everything in life is the degeneration of something else. Perhaps existence is always an approximation – an advent, or surroundings. Just as C..." image: "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/760/fernando-pessoa-177_failure_perhaps-everything-in-life-is-the-degene_955895.jpg" --- # Perhaps everything in life is the degeneration of… ![“Perhaps everything in life is the degeneration of something else. Perhaps existence is always an approximation – an advent, or surroundings. Just as Christianity was but the prophetic degeneration of a debased Neo-Platonism, the Romanization of Hellenism through Judaism,* so our age – senile and…” quote by Fernando Pessoa](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/760/fernando-pessoa-177_failure_perhaps-everything-in-life-is-the-degene_955895.jpg) [Download](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/760/fernando-pessoa-177_failure_perhaps-everything-in-life-is-the-degene_955895.jpg) [Open image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/760/fernando-pessoa-177_failure_perhaps-everything-in-life-is-the-degene_955895.jpg) > ““Perhaps everything in life is the degeneration of something else. Perhaps existence is always an approximation – an advent, or surroundings. Just as Christianity was but the prophetic degeneration of a debased Neo-Platonism, the Romanization of Hellenism through Judaism,\* so our age – senile and carcinogenic\* – is the multiple deviation of all great goals, concordant or conflicting, whose defeat gave rise to all the negations we use to affirm ourselves.\*”” [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. Ideas evolve by breaking down older concepts, leading to new, sometimes distorted forms. **In simple terms:** Ideas change by breaking down old ones. Key Takeaway Recognize the cycle of transformation. Themes change philosophy history Mood contemplative critical Type philosophical inspirational When to use this quote - academic research - artistic creation - political analysis - personal growth Key Concepts dialectics cultural evolution Questions to Reflect On - How does this view affect your perception of progress? - Can you find value in what seems like decay? A Different Perspective Not all degeneration is negative; it can produce valuable synthesis. ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ No ratings yet [Degeneration](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/degeneration/) [Degeneration Debased](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/degeneration-debased-1735731/) [Degeneration Existence](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/degeneration-existence-1735728/) [Failure](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/failure/) [Goals](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/goals/) [Judaism](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/judaism/) [Life](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/life/) [Life Degeneration](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/life-degeneration-1735730/) [Prophetic Degeneration](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/prophetic-degeneration-1735729/) ## Related quotes > [Hysteria and degeneration have always existed; but they formerly showed themselves sporadically, and had no importance in the life of the whole community. It…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/max-nordau/hysteria-and-degeneration-have-always-existed-but-they-formerly/) [Max Nordau](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/max-nordau/) > [Welcome to the degeneration of my mind.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/hank-green/welcome-to-the-degeneration-of-my-mind/) [Hank Green](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/hank-green/) > [Humanity to me is not a mob. A mob is a degeneration of humanity. A mob is humanity going the wrong way.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/frank-lloyd-wright/humanity-to-me-is-not-a-mob-a-mob-is-a-degeneration-of-humanity-a-mob/) [Frank Lloyd Wright](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/frank-lloyd-wright/) > [It is thought that the virus is a degeneration from a more complex life form. It may at one time have been capable of…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/william-s-burroughs/it-is-thought-that-the-virus-is-a-degeneration-from-a-more-complex/) [William S. Burroughs](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/william-s-burroughs/) > [The beginning is always so fine!! But decay soon follows. A degeneration into the tired old situation. The rot sets in. This way, there…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/jhonen-vasquez/the-beginning-is-always-so-fine-but-decay-soon-follows-a-degeneration/) [Jhonen Vasquez](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/jhonen-vasquez/) > [Socialism crushes human rights, builds the state, impinges on the liberty of conscience, and breeds social, cultural, and economic degeneration.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/llewellyn-rockwell/socialism-crushes-human-rights-builds-the-state-impinges-on-the/) [Llewellyn Rockwell](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/llewellyn-rockwell/) > [In the eye, there is a type of junk that accumulates in the back of the retina that eventually causes us to go blind.…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/aubrey-de-grey/in-the-eye-there-is-a-type-of-junk-that-accumulates-in-the-back-of/) [Aubrey de Grey](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/aubrey-de-grey/) > [Remember how many beautiful women there were in the 1950s and 1960s, without any surgery? And now, thanks to degeneration, we have this.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/valeria-lukyanova/remember-how-many-beautiful-women-there-were-in-the-1950s-and-1960s/) [Valeria Lukyanova](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/valeria-lukyanova/) > [“The domestication (the culture) of man does not go deep--where it does go deep it at once becomes degeneration (type: the Christian). The 'savage'…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/friedrich-nietzsche/the-domestication-the-culture-of-man-does-not-go-deep-where-it-does/) [Friedrich Nietzsche](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/friedrich-nietzsche/) > [The mind in its foolishness thinks that it is working in this body. Why should I be bound by one system of nerves, and…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/swami-vivekananda/the-mind-in-its-foolishness-thinks-that-it-is-working-in-this-body/) [Swami Vivekananda](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/swami-vivekananda/) > [“Rose was patently a degenerate. Nature, in scheduling his characteristics, had pruned all superlatives. The rude armour of the flesh, under which the spiritual,…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/bernard-capes/rose-was-patently-a-degenerate-nature-in-scheduling-his/) [Bernard Capes](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/bernard-capes/) > [“The too perfect security of the Upper-worlders had led them to a slow movement of degeneration, a general dwindling in size strength and intelligence.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/anonymous/the-too-perfect-security-of-the-upper-worlders-had-led-them-to-a-slow/) [Anonymous](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/anonymous/) > [Human beings are compelled to live within a lie, but they can be compelled to do so only because they are in fact capable…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/vaclav-havel/human-beings-are-compelled-to-live-within-a-lie-but-they-can-be/) [Vaclav Havel](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/vaclav-havel/) > [It is not till it is discovered that high individual incomes will not purchase the mass of mankind immunity from cholera, typhus, and ignorance,…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/r-h-tawney/it-is-not-till-it-is-discovered-that-high-individual-incomes-will-not/) [R. H. Tawney](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/r-h-tawney/) > [I am convinced that 1941 will be the crucial year of a great New Order in Europe. The world shall open up for everyone.…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/adolf-hitler/i-am-convinced-that-1941-will-be-the-crucial-year-of-a-great-new/) [Adolf Hitler](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/adolf-hitler/) ## 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 Degeneration quotes > [Hysteria and degeneration have always existed; but they formerly showed themselves sporadically, and had no importance in the life of the whole community. It…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/max-nordau/hysteria-and-degeneration-have-always-existed-but-they-formerly/) [Max Nordau](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/max-nordau/) > [It is not till it is discovered that high individual incomes will not purchase the mass of mankind immunity from cholera, typhus, and ignorance,…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/r-h-tawney/it-is-not-till-it-is-discovered-that-high-individual-incomes-will-not/) [R. H. Tawney](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/r-h-tawney/) > [Human beings are compelled to live within a lie, but they can be compelled to do so only because they are in fact capable…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/vaclav-havel/human-beings-are-compelled-to-live-within-a-lie-but-they-can-be/) [Vaclav Havel](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/vaclav-havel/) > [“The too perfect security of the Upper-worlders had led them to a slow movement of degeneration, a general dwindling in size strength and intelligence.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/anonymous/the-too-perfect-security-of-the-upper-worlders-had-led-them-to-a-slow/) [Anonymous](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/anonymous/) > [“Rose was patently a degenerate. Nature, in scheduling his characteristics, had pruned all superlatives. The rude armour of the flesh, under which the spiritual,…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/bernard-capes/rose-was-patently-a-degenerate-nature-in-scheduling-his/) [Bernard Capes](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/bernard-capes/) > [The mind in its foolishness thinks that it is working in this body. Why should I be bound by one system of nerves, and…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/swami-vivekananda/the-mind-in-its-foolishness-thinks-that-it-is-working-in-this-body/) [Swami Vivekananda](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/swami-vivekananda/) > [“The domestication (the culture) of man does not go deep--where it does go deep it at once becomes degeneration (type: the Christian). The 'savage'…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/friedrich-nietzsche/the-domestication-the-culture-of-man-does-not-go-deep-where-it-does/) [Friedrich Nietzsche](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/friedrich-nietzsche/) > [Remember how many beautiful women there were in the 1950s and 1960s, without any surgery? And now, thanks to degeneration, we have this.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/valeria-lukyanova/remember-how-many-beautiful-women-there-were-in-the-1950s-and-1960s/) [Valeria Lukyanova](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/valeria-lukyanova/) > [In the eye, there is a type of junk that accumulates in the back of the retina that eventually causes us to go blind.…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/aubrey-de-grey/in-the-eye-there-is-a-type-of-junk-that-accumulates-in-the-back-of/) [Aubrey de Grey](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/aubrey-de-grey/) > [Socialism crushes human rights, builds the state, impinges on the liberty of conscience, and breeds social, cultural, and economic degeneration.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/llewellyn-rockwell/socialism-crushes-human-rights-builds-the-state-impinges-on-the/) [Llewellyn Rockwell](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/llewellyn-rockwell/) > [The beginning is always so fine!! But decay soon follows. A degeneration into the tired old situation. The rot sets in. This way, there…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/jhonen-vasquez/the-beginning-is-always-so-fine-but-decay-soon-follows-a-degeneration/) [Jhonen Vasquez](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/jhonen-vasquez/) > [It is thought that the virus is a degeneration from a more complex life form. It may at one time have been capable of…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/william-s-burroughs/it-is-thought-that-the-virus-is-a-degeneration-from-a-more-complex/) [William S. Burroughs](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/william-s-burroughs/) > [Humanity to me is not a mob. A mob is a degeneration of humanity. A mob is humanity going the wrong way.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/frank-lloyd-wright/humanity-to-me-is-not-a-mob-a-mob-is-a-degeneration-of-humanity-a-mob/) [Frank Lloyd Wright](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/frank-lloyd-wright/) > [Welcome to the degeneration of my mind.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/hank-green/welcome-to-the-degeneration-of-my-mind/) [Hank Green](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/hank-green/) > [I am convinced that 1941 will be the crucial year of a great New Order in Europe. The world shall open up for everyone.…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/adolf-hitler/i-am-convinced-that-1941-will-be-the-crucial-year-of-a-great-new/) [Adolf Hitler](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/adolf-hitler/) [Browse all 48 Degeneration quotes ](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/degeneration/) ```json { "@context": "https://schema.org", "@graph": [ { "@type": "Quotation", "text": "“Perhaps everything in life is the degeneration of something else. 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