
“To navigate is necessary, to live is not.”
To sailors who were defending Rome from a sea invasion.
Life of Pompey
Ibid., pp. 133, 262
This has been attributed to Pessoa. Indeed, it is from Plutarch's "Parallel Lives", about Pompeus, when demanding that soldiers board the ships, when they were afraid of dying at sea.
The Book of Disquiet
Original: Navegar é preciso, viver não é preciso.
“To navigate is necessary, to live is not.”
To sailors who were defending Rome from a sea invasion.
Life of Pompey
“Yes, it is necessary to suffer, even in vain, so as not to live in vain.”
Sí, es necesario padecer, aún en vano, para no vivir en vano.
Voces (1943)
“Love’em or hate’em, by blood or by heart, family was a kind of oxygen. Necessary for the living.”
Source: Lover at Last
“It's necessary to have wished for death in order to know how good it is to live.”
Source: The Count of Monte Cristo
Source: A Serious Call to a Devout and Holy Life (1728), Ch. I.
Source: The Outermost House: A Year of Life On The Great Beach of Cape Cod
Post-Presidency, Nobel lecture (2002)
Source: The Nobel Peace Prize Lecture
How Plants are Trained to Work for Man (1921) Vol. 1 Plant Breeding