"The value of things is not the time they last, but the intensity with which they occur. That is why there are unforgettable moments and unique people!"
"What'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."
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Source: The Book of Disquiet. Book by Fernando Pessoa, p. 182, 1982.
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"The feelings that hurt most, the emotions that sting most, are those that are absurd - The longing for impossible things, precisely because they are impossible; nostalgia for what never was; the desire for what could have been; regret over not being someone else; dissatisfaction with the world’s existence. All these half-tones of the soul’s consciousness create in us a painful landscape, an eternal sunset of what we are."
"Life is what we make of it. Travel is the traveler. What we see isn't what we see but what we are."
"My soul is a hidden orchestra; I know not what instruments, what fiddlestrings and harps, drums and tamboura I sound and clash inside myself. All I hear is the symphony."
"The slope takes you to the windmill, but effort takes you nowhere."
"We never love anyone. What we love is the idea we have of someone. It's our own concept—our own selves—that we love."