I feel closer ties and more intimate bonds with certain characters in books, with certain images Iโve seen in engravings, than with many supposedly real people with the metaphysical absurdity known as โflesh and bloodโ. In fact, โflesh and bloodโ describes them very well: they resemble cuts of meat laid out on the butcherโs marble slab, dead creatures bleeding as though still alive.
Fernando PessoaWe 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 PessoaI sometimes think that I enjoy suffering. But the truth is I would prefer something else.
Fernando PessoaIf, on thinking this, I look up to see if reality can quench my thirst, I see inexpressive facades, inexpressive faces, inexpressive gestures. Stones, bodies, ideas - all dead. All movements are one great standstill. Nothing means anything to me, not because it's unfamiliar but because I don't know what it is. The world has slipped away. And in the bottom of my soul - as the only reality of this moment - there's an intense and invisible grief, a sadness like the sound of someone crying in a dark room.
Fernando Pessoa