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.
Interpretation
The quote reflects a struggle between the self and the inner psyche, highlighting the search for identity and freedom.
In this quote, Fernando Pessoa expresses a profound internal conflict, where the speaker feels imprisoned by their own existence yet longs for freedom and self-discovery. The imagery of hills and valleys suggests a deep journey through life's complexities, with the hope that the true self remains elusive, symbolizing the tension between the conscious and unconscious aspects of identity.
In practice
In a discussion about personal growth and self-awareness, this quote can illustrate the challenges of understanding one's true self.
I have at this moment so many fundamental thoughts, so many truly metaphysical things to say, that I suddenly get tired and decide not to write any more, not to think any more, but to allow the fever of speaking to make me sleepy, and with my eyes closed, like a cat, I play with everything I could have said.
It's been months since I last wrote. I've lived in a state of mental slumber, leading the life of someone else. I've felt, very often, a vicarious happiness. I haven't existed. I've been someone else. I've lived without thinking.
We all have two lives: The true, the one we dreamed of in childhood And go on dreaming of as adults in a substratum of mist; the false, the one we love when we live with others, the practical, the useful, the one we end up by being put in a coffin.
I'm a man for whom the outside world is an inner Reality.
My dreams are a stupid refuge, like an umbrella against a thunderbolt.
The chill of what I won't feel gnaws at my present heart.
Necessity is the most powerful divinity the world knows – it is the result of physical forces set in operation by ethical forces.
To delight in war is a merit in the soldier, a dangerous quality in the captain, and a positive crime in the statesman.
What 'March' is saying is that it doesn't matter whether we are black or white, Latino or Asian. It doesn't matter whether we are straight or gay.
Grief doesn't change you. It reveals you.
Intellectually, human beings and animals may be different, but it's pretty obvious that animals have a rich emotional life and that they feel joy and pain. It's easy to forget the connection between a hamburger and the cow it came from. But I forced myself to acknowledge the fact that every time I ate a hamburger, a cow had ceased to breathe
I don't think we should stop emphasizing race because I think, you know, race is still very, very important, and we have to recognize that and continue to introduce programs to address racial inequities. But we have to widen our vision and also address the growing problems of economic class.
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