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.
Fernando PessoaRead
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.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote reflects the overwhelming nature of profound thoughts and the desire for rest over expression.
In this quote, Fernando Pessoa conveys the struggle of grappling with deep, fundamental thoughts that can be exhausting. Instead of articulating these complex ideas, he chooses to embrace relaxation and let his mind rest, akin to a cat playing with unexpressed thoughts, highlighting the tension between intellectual pursuit and the need for repose.
Themes
ThoughtsMetaphysicalRestExpressionPhilosophy
In practice
Example use cases
During a philosophical discussion on the nature of existence, this quote can illustrate the importance of mental restation.
More from Fernando Pessoa
All quotes →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.
Fernando PessoaRead
I'm a man for whom the outside world is an inner Reality.
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My dreams are a stupid refuge, like an umbrella against a thunderbolt.
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The chill of what I won't feel gnaws at my present heart.
Fernando PessoaRead
Friends: not one. Just a few acquaintances who imagine they feel something for me and who might be sorry if a train ran over me and the funeral was on a rainy day.
Fernando PessoaRead
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