The 5 Best Quotes From Fernando Pessoa

Fernando Pessoa was a Portuguese author and poet. He was born in 1888 and died in 1935. Although he worked for various newspapers and was also active in the advertising and business sectors, he is best known for his writing. Pessoa left the world with some great literary works, so today we take a look at some of Fernando Pessoa’s quotes.

If there is one thing that characterizes Pessoa’s writing, it is the power of suggestion. He always left his readers room for interpretation, inviting them to reflect on various areas of life by choosing subjective topics and using heteronyms. Pessoa’s idiosyncratic style could also be the reason why it has attracted the attention of so many literary scholars to this day.

Today we will learn a little more about him through the selected quotes from Fernando Pessoa. They help us better understand Pessoa’s thoughts about the world, relationships, and other aspects of life. So, without further ado, let’s take a look at the quotes from this fabulous author!

1. “I’m so lonely that I can feel the distance between myself and my suit.”

This quote invites us to reflect on our own existence. Sometimes we are so fixated on the outside world that we forget what is most important: ourselves. Distance between ourselves and ourselves means that we no longer know who we are.

Are we showing our true selves in front of our fellow human beings? What do we give up to please others? What do we hide so that we can improve our image? Do we censor ourselves out of fear that we might displease our fellow human beings? All of these actions lead us to isolate ourselves from ourselves. This in turn means that we separate from our real being. We discard our selves as if it were less important than what others want to see in us.

There is nothing worse than feeling isolated from other people. Although, when I think about it, there is something worse: the feeling of being isolated from yourself.

2. “Put everything you are into the smallest thing you do.”

With this quote Fernando Pessoa reminds us to always do our best. Sometimes we don’t give 100% because we think what we’re doing doesn’t matter. But when we learn to stop our lives on autopilot , we will see that even small actions can improve our wellbeing.

If we keep this attitude and make it a part of our daily life, we can benefit from it. This is a positive and enriching approach to life that we should cultivate. Let us remember that usually the most difficult tasks are also the ones that give us the most satisfaction in solving them. Because thanks to our efforts, we can grow and face challenges that remind us of what we are capable of.

So let us never belittle the work we are doing, however insignificant it may seem to us. Even actions that seem trivial at first glance can serve as lessons and open doors for us. The small steps are often the most important to achieve our goal. Because whether our way is long or short, the journey consists of all these small steps.

3. “The journeys are the travelers. What we see is not what we see, but what we are. “

This third of the quotations from Fernando Pessoa gives us a new perspective on our environment. Because every time we see, judge or criticize something outside of ourselves, we see a part of ourselves in this something. We cannot judge someone who is critical without becoming like that critic. Just like in the often-quoted and wise proverb: If you sit in a glass house, you shouldn’t throw stones.

In fact, we criticize the mistakes of others before we admit our own mistakes. But what we see in them is also what we actually are. Why do we all react differently when faced with the same obstacle? Why do some of us feel like victims and others don’t? Because it’s about who we are and what we show the world who we want to be.

4. “Don’t do anything today that you could stop tomorrow.”

Procrastinating is not good at all. We tend to postpone things until tomorrow like we have all the time in the world. Hence the saying: Don’t put off until tomorrow what you can get today. However, there is another variant of this proverb that sets the focus in a similar way, but shows us a different perspective. This is where the fourth of the Fernando Pessoa quotes we selected comes into play.

Pessoa invites us to question what we are doing. Is what we do really useful? Does it bring us closer to our dreams or does it drive us away from them? Is it a waste of time? We shouldn’t do things just to do them. We need to think about our goals and dreams and use our time wisely. After all, our time is unfortunately limited.

We spend many hours of our lives feeling bad about ourselves. We are unhappy, we cannot get out of our comfort zone … Despite this bad feeling, we do not change our routines. We should definitely analyze and question them in more detail. If we do something we don’t want to do and we have the opportunity to stop today, then let’s do it! Our time is precious. Let’s make the best of it!

5. “Things have no meaning: they are there. The things themselves are the only hidden meaning of things. “

This last of the Fernando Pessoa quotes makes us reflect on the human tendency to want to name elements of our lives. We do this because it makes us feel safer. When something doesn’t have a name, it’s as if it didn’t exist. The existence of an object or experience in and of itself does not seem to make sense unless we can find a name for it.

The word “thing” is very common in our vocabulary. We use it for many things in our life. But what does it really mean? This lack of meaning is actually the meaning of its existence: its lack of personality.

“Zero is the greatest metaphor. Infinity is the greatest analogy. Existence is the greatest symbol. “

Fernando Pessoa

All of these quotations from Fernando Pessoa open up new perspectives, a different perspective on our world. They help us to see our environment with different eyes. The brilliance of Pessoa’s thinking and his puns shine through in his writing. His legacy as an author is the depth of his writing, which makes it great for analysis and interpretation.