7 Revealing Quotes From Fernando Pessoa
Fernando Pessoa is one of the greatest poets of all time. He was born in Portugal and lived in the late 1800s and early 1900s. To some, he is one of the most enigmatic figures in literature. For others, he is a magician who dived into the depths of the human soul and left some verses full of intelligence and wisdom as a legacy.
One of the most mysterious aspects of Pessoa was his obsessive use of heteronyms. These heteronyms were imaginary characters who emerged as authors of his work. Some of the most famous were Alberto Caeiro, Alvaro de Campos, Bernardo Soares and Ricardo Reis . He himself published critiques of these hypothetical authors, who were none other than himself.
The most interesting thing is that these heteronyms were not just pseudonyms. Each had its own personality, character and style. Those who have studied his work sometimes ask themselves whether Fernando Pessoa was in fact his true identity. In any case, he has given us some extraordinary work. We will now highlight seven of his most memorable quotes, and we invite you to reflect on them.
The Unconscious – a recurring theme in Fernando Pessoa
The work of Fernando Pessoa is very philosophical in its content. His reflections are sharp insights into the logic of our existence. In the following quote, he shows the paradox of both thinking and not thinking: “The awareness of life’s unconsciousness is the oldest should of the mind.”
This quote is striking, because there is an interesting contradiction in it. It is through intelligence and consciousness that we discover the unconscious. The latter is inaccessible, since it is unconscious, and as such does not have full access to rationality. And so, in this way , we only get to know what we have previously overlooked.
About how to observe the world around us
A glance defines identity. At the same time, identity defines the gaze. So both realities are always together. That is what is reflected in one of Fernando Pessoa’s most amazing sentences, “My size depends on what I look at, not on my own physical dimensions.”
This means that the broader the perspective, the larger the person who sees. And the opposite is also true – he who has a small perspective has been invaded by lowliness. Height, in a figurative sense, defines our way of seeing reality.
Know yourself and think
Pessoa always fought against his thoughts. Doing this can set us free, but it can also catch on. It gives us joy of understanding, but at the same time it takes away the freshness of life. The poet recognizes this fact in the following quote. “To be ignorant of oneself is to live. To feel bad about oneself is to think. ”
What he is trying to tell us is that the most real things in life are simply being lived. This is true abundance. On the other hand, just thinking all the time is a limited exercise, which only leads to partial results and robs us of our chance to fully experience our existence. Life is stronger than thought.
What is love anyway?
Pessoa defines love as building thoughts with our imagination. We can see this in the following quote, “We can never love another human being. We love the notions we create about another, and consequently love only ourselves. ”
In the end, he believes that love is a selfish projection. We see in the other person what we want or need to see. We never see what they really are, and never get to know them. We just conceptualize and fall in love with that conceptualization.
An exception for which there is no standard
For Pessoa, every individual is an infinite reality. He says that we can not build up generalizations that are valid for each individual person. Therefore, he wrote the following: “There are no rules. All men are exceptions to a rule that does not exist. ”
The denial of a common standard for human beings means an elevation of individual peculiarities. Although we may seem to share common traits and characteristics, each person is a different and unique world. In this sense, it is not possible to create a rule that can be applied to everyone.
Progress and its mysteries
For this famous Portuguese poet, success is something that must be built. “Progress is to have progress, not to have the opportunity for progress. Any piece of land of a certain size has the potential to accommodate a palace, but where is the palace if you do not build it there? ”
With this wonderful expression, Fernando Pessoa shows the idea that talent is your potential. It is not so much the virtues or abilities you have to perform that define your talent, but it is what you do that determines your abilities and what really counts.
Death, an eternal theme
Speaking of death, he said: “When I see a dead person, I think of death as a farewell. The body looks like a piece of clothing left behind. The person in question went his way, and certainly did not need to bring his only coat “. This beautiful phrase speaks of the body as just a facade of who we really are. In death, someone’s presence left us. The dead body no longer represents this person. The one who dies is simply no longer there.
Fernando Pessoa is one of the poets one can never forget after reading his works. His poetry mixes an exceptional sensitivity, with an admirable clairvoyance. In his verses and in the lines he wrote, there are wonderful revelations that can really make us doubt what we believe.
