Quotessence
Home / Authors / Fernando Pessoa
Fernando Pessoa

Fernando Pessoa Quotes

Poet

Filter quotes by topic

AllBook Of DisquietLifeSoulIfsThinkingDreamFeelsKnowsThe Book Of DisquietWorldWritingPeopleSelfMenArtFernando PessoaSufferingLoveRealitySadness

Famous Fernando Pessoa Quotes

“It's not demons (who at least have a human face) but Hell itself that seems to be laughing inside me, it's the croaking madness of the dead universe, the spinning cadaver of physical space, the end of all worlds blowing blackly in the wind, formless and timeless, without a God who created it, without even its own self, impossibly whirling in the absolute darkness as the one and only reality, everything.”

WorldHumansEndsSelfRealitySeemsFacesUniverseSpaceDarknessLaughingHellWindMadnessAbsolutesDemonTimelessSpinningHuman FacesCadavers
Book:The Book of Disquiet
Create image

“Life is an experimental journey undertaken involuntarily. It is a journey of the spirit through the material world and, since it is the spirit that travels, it is the spirit that is experienced. That is why there exist contemplative souls who have lived more intensely, more widely, more tumultuously than others who have lived their lives purely externally. The end result is what matters. What one felt was what one experienced. One retires to bed as wearily from having dreamed as from having done hard physical labor. One never lives so intensely as when one has been thinking hard.”

ThinkingWorldHas BeensSoulEndsMatterHardDoneLife IsSpiritFeltResultsJourneyMaterialsBedLaborRetiringWhat MattersContemplativeMaterial WorldEnd ResultsThinking Hard
Author:Fernando Pessoa
Create image

“The feelings that hurt most, the emotions that sting most, are those that are absurd - The longing for impossible things, precisely because they are impossible; nostalgia for what never was; the desire for what could have been; regret over not being someone else; dissatisfaction with the world’s existence. All these half-tones of the soul’s consciousness create in us a painful landscape, an eternal sunset of what we are.”

WorldHas BeensSoulFeelingsDesireHopeHurtEmotionExistenceHalfConsciousnessImpossibleRegretEternalLongingPainfulNostalgiaAbsurdLandscapeToneSunsetYearningCould Have BeenDissatisfactionImpossible ThingsBook Of Disquiet
Book:Book of Disquietude
Create image

“Once we're able to see this world as an illusion and a phantasm, then we can see everything that happens to us as a dream, as something that pretended to exist while we were sleeping. And we will become subtly and profoundly indifferent towards all of life's setbacks and calamities. Those who die turned a corner, which is why we've stopped seeing them; those who suffer pass before us like a nightmare, if we feel, or like an unpleasant daydream, if we think. And even our own suffering won't be more than this nothingness.”

IfsThinkingWorldFeelsDreamHappensAbleSufferingDiesSleepSeeingThis WorldIllusionCornersNightmareIndifferentNothingnessCalamityDaydreamingSetback
Author:Fernando Pessoa
Create image

“I read and am liberated. I acquire objectivity. I cease being myself and so scattered. And what I read, instead of being like a nearly invisible suit that sometimes oppresses me, is the external world’s tremendous and remarkable clarity, the sun that sees everyone, the moon that splotches the still earth with shadows, the wide expanses that end in the sea, the blackly solid trees whose tops greenly wave, the steady peace of ponds on farms, the terraced slopes with their paths overgrown by grape-vines.”

WorldStillsEndsSometimesEarthSunPathTreeSeaMoonShadowWaveWideInvisibleCeaseClaritySuitsAcquireRemarkableFarmsSteadyObjectivityLiberatedGrapesPondsVinesSlopesBeing MyselfExpanse
Author:Fernando Pessoa
Create image

“If, on thinking this, I look up to see if reality can quench my thirst, I see inexpressive facades, inexpressive faces, inexpressive gestures. Stones, bodies, ideas - all dead. All movements are one great standstill. Nothing means anything to me, not because it's unfamiliar but because I don't know what it is. The world has slipped away. And in the bottom of my soul - as the only reality of this moment - there's an intense and invisible grief, a sadness like the sound of someone crying in a dark room.”

IfsThinkingKnowsWorldLooksMeanIdeasSoulMomentsBodyRealityFacesSoundDarkRoomsGriefSadnessCryMovementStonesBottomInvisibleIntenseMy SoulLook UpGesturesThirstUnfamiliarFacadeQuenchDark RoomStandstill
Author:Fernando Pessoa
Create image

“Every day things happen in the world that cannot be explained by any law of things we know. Every day they're mentioned and forgotten, and the same mystery that brought them takes them away, transforming their secret into oblivion. Such is the law by which things that can't be explained must be forgotten. The visible world goes on as usual in the broad daylight. Otherness watches us from the shadows.”

KnowsWorldHappensLawSecretWatchesMysteryGoes OnShadowForgottenThings HappenVisibleBroadsUsualOblivionTransformingDaylightOtherness
Author:Fernando Pessoa
Create image