Fernando Pessoa

Portugal
13 Jun 1888 // 30 Nov 1935
Poet

Quotes



We are all children of Christ, through his grandson Rousseau. This is on our mother's side, also, on our father's date back to some clear pagan god from whom our near ancestors degenerated. The mother in us is more than the father. As in a house governed by women, we are outgoverned well.
My great terror of Death or not as Death but as not-life.
Into the life of no man has the mystery of the world entered so much. So familiarly, might I say. The mystery of the world finds not alone my thought, but my feeling also.
I sometimes am struck with an astonished fear at my inspirations, at my thoughts, realizing how little of myself is mine (or, is myself).
Be complete in everything, for to be complete in anything is to be right. All roads arrive at the same place.
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On Anger: "For every minute you remain angry, you give up sixty seconds of peace of mind."
Essays
On Destiny: "Our destiny exercises its influence over us even when, as yet, we have not learned its nature: it is our future that lays down the law of our today."
Human, All Too Human
On Friendship: "A crowd is not company; and faces are but a gallery of pictures; and talk but a tinkling cymbal, where there is no love."
Essays