There's a tiredness of abstract inteligence, and it's the most horrible of tirednesses. It doesn't weight on you like the tiredness of the body, nor does it worry you like the tiredness of knowledge and emotion. It's a weightiness of the conscience of the world, an inability of the soul to breathe.
Fernando PessoaWhat's given, in fact, always depends on the person or thing it's given to. A minor incident in the street brings the cook to the door and entertains him more than I would be entertained by contemplating the most original idea, by reading the greatest book, or by having the most gratifying of useless dreams. If life is basically monotony, he has escaped it more than I. And he escapes it more easily than I. The truth isn't with him or with me, because it isn't with anyone, but happiness does belong to him.
Fernando PessoaTo have opinions is to sell out to youself. To have no opinions is to exist. To have every opinion is to be a poet.
Fernando PessoaWe may know that the work we continue to put off doing will be bad. Worse, however, is the work we never do. A work thatโs finished is at least finished. It may be poor, but it exists, like the miserable plant in the lone flowerpot of my neighbour whoโs crippled. That plant is her happiness, and sometimes itโs even mine. What I write, bad as it is, may provide some hurt or sad soul a few moments of distraction from something worse. Thatโs enough for me, or it isnโt enough, but it serves some purpose, and so it is with all of life.
Fernando Pessoa