To create, I destroyed myself; I made myself external to such a degree within myself that within myself I do not exist except in an external fashion. I am the living setting in which several actors make entrances, putting on several different plays.
Interpretation
This quote reflects the inner conflict of an artist who sacrifices their true self to create external art.
In this profound statement by Fernando Pessoa, the author explores the intense inner turmoil and transformation that can accompany the creative process. The act of creation is portrayed as a destructive force that compels the artist to distance themselves from their authentic identity, leading to a perception of the self as a mere stage or setting upon which various personas or 'actors' take the spotlight. This commentary on the nature of creativity underscores the idea that artistic expression often entails a painful sacrifice of oneβs inner essence to manifest outwardly, resulting in a fragmented sense of self.
In practice
In a discussion about the nature of artistic expression, one might use this quote to illustrate the emotional sacrifices artists make.
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.
The stress laid on upward social mobility in the United States has tended to obscure the fact that there can be more than one kind of mobility and more than one direction in which it can go. There can be ethical mobility as well as financial, and it can go down as well as up.
For I do not seek to understand in order to believe, but I believe in order to understand. For I believe this: unless I believe, I will not understand.
Reason in man is rather like God in the world.
People with the strongest and healthiest sense of calling are not obsessed with their calling. They are preoccupied with the Caller.
Power is the chance to impose your will within a social context, even when opposed and regardless of the integrity of that chance.
Complexes are psychic contents which are outside the control of the conscious mind. They have been split off from consciousness and lead a separate existence in the unconscious, being at all times ready to hinder or to reinforce the conscious intentions.
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