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"56 Fernando Pessoa Quotes & Sayings

      Portuguese     /     View profile
Born: 13 June 1888. Died: 30 November 1935 | Poet | Writer | Critic | Translator | Publisher | Philosopher |

Literature is the most agreeable way of ignoring life.

Literature Most Agreeable Ignoring
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No intelligent idea can gain general acceptance unless some stupidity is mixed in with it

No-intelligent Idea General Acceptance
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My past is everything I failed to be.

Past Failed Be
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There are ships sailing to many ports, but not a single one goes where life is not painful.

Ships Sailing Many Ports
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I'd woken up early, and I took a long time getting ready to exist.

Woken Early Time Ready
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We never love anyone. What we love is the idea we have of someone. It's our own concept—our own selves—that we love.

Never Love Anyone Idea
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I've always rejected being understood. To be understood is to prostitute oneself. I prefer to be taken seriously for what I'm not, remaining humanly unknown, with naturalness and all due respect

Rejected Understood Prostitute Prefer
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In order to understand, I destroyed myself.
In order Understand Destroyed Myself
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I am nothing. I'll never be anything. I couldn't want to be something. Apart from that, I have in me all the dreams in the world.

Nothing Something Want Dream
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I wasn’t meant for reality, but life came and found me.
Life Came Found Reality
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I bear the wounds of all the battles I avoided.

Bear Wounds Battle Avoided
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The value of things is not the time they last, but the intensity with which they occur. That is why there are unforgettable moments and unique people!

Value Things Last Intensity
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I've never done anything but dream. This, and this alone, has been the meaning of my life. My only real concern has been my inner life.
Never Done Dream Meaning
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We worship perfection because we can't have it; if we had it, we would reject it. Perfection is inhuman, because humanity is imperfect.

Worship Perfection Because Reject
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To have opinions is to sell out to yourself. To have no opinions is to exist. To have every opinion is to be a poet.

Opinion Sell Yourself Exist
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If after I die, people want to write my biography, there is nothing simpler. They only need two dates: the date of my birth and the date of my death. Between one and another, every day is mine.

Die People Write Biography
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To know nothing about yourself is to live. To know yourself badly is to think.
Know Yourself Badly Think
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Ah, it's my longing for whom I might have been that distracts and torments me!

My-longing Whom Might Distracts
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But I am not perfect in my way of putting things Because I lack the divine simplicity Of being only what I appear to be.

Perfect Putting Things Divine
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I’m losing my taste for everything, including even my taste for finding everything tasteless.

Losing Taste Everything Finding
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The essence of what I desire is simply this: to sleep away life.
Essence What Desire Sleep
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Friends: not one. Just a few acquaintances who imagine they feel something for me and who might be sorry if a train ran over me and the funeral was on a rainy day.

Friends Few Acquaintances Imagine
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Life is what we make of it. Travel is the traveler. What we see isn't what we see but what we are.
Life Travel Traveler What
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I don't know what I feel or what I want to feel. I don't know what to think or what I am.

Know Feel Want Think
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But do we really live? To live without knowing what life is - is that living?
Really-live Knowing What Life
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Having never discovered qualities in myself that might attract someone else, I could never believe that anyone felt attracted to me.

Never Discovered Qualities Attract
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I carry my awareness of defeat like a banner of victory.

Carry Awareness Defeat Banner
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There are no norms. All people are exceptions to a rule that doesn’t exist.

Norms People Exceptions Rule
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Be what I think? But I think of being so many things!

Think Many Things
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Whether or not they exist we are slaves to our gods.

Whether Exist Slaves Gods
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And, like the great damned souls, I shall always feel that thinking is worth more than living.

Worth Great Soul Thinking
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I am the escaped one, After I was born They locked me up inside me But I left. My soul seeks me, Through hills and valley, I hope my soul Never finds me.

Escape Born Inside Seeks
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Blessed are those who entrust their lives to no one.

Blessed Entrust Lives
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I know nothing and my heart aches

Nothing Heart Aches
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To love is to tire of being alone; it is therefore a cowardice, a betrayal of ourselves. (It is exceedingly important that we not love.)

Love Alone Cowardice Betrayal
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Writing is like paying myself a formal visit…

Writing Paying Formal Visit
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There are ships sailing to many ports, but not a single one goes to where life is not painful; nor is there a port of call where it is possible to forget.

Ships Sailing Life Painful
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I realize that I was all error and deviation, that I never lived, that I existed only in so far as I filled time with consciousness and thought.

Deviation Error Lived Existed
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This world is for those who are born to conquer it, Not for those who dream that are able to conquer it, even if they're right.

World Dream Born Conquer
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Life is full of paradoxes, as roses are of thorns.
Life Paradoxes Roses Thorns
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Let us sculpt in hopeless silence all our dreams of speaking.

Dream Hopeless Speaking Silence
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To act—that is true wisdom. I can be what I want to be, but I have to want whatever it is. Success consists in being successful, not in having the potential for success.

True-wisdom What Success Consist
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We, all who live, have A life that is lived And another life that is thought, And the only life we have It's the one that is divided In right or wrong.

Live Life Thought Divided
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Life is whatever we conceive it to be.
Life Conceive Whatever
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In my heart there's a peaceful anguish, and my calm is made of resignation.

Heart Peaceful Anguish Calm
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Again I see you, But me I don't see!, The magical mirror in which I saw myself has been broken, And only a piece of me I see in each fatal fragment - Only a piece of you and me!...

See You Magical Mirror
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To write is to forget. Literature is the pleasantest way of ignoring life.
Life Write Literature Pleasant
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I'm the empty stage where various actors act out various plays.

Empty Stage Actors Plays
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I am nothing. I will never be anything. I cannot wish to be anything. Bar that, I have in me all the dreams of the world.

I Never Dream World
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To feel today what one felt yesterday isn't to feel - it's to remember today what was felt yesterday, to be today's living corpse of what yesterday was lived and lost.

Remember Today Feel Yesterday
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Fernando Pessoa Quotes & Sayings