Quotes from book
The Book of Disquiet

Name: The Book of Disquiet
Author: Fernando Pessoa

Fernando PessoaOriginal title Livro do Desassossego, Composto por Bernardo Soares, ajudante de guarda‐livros na cidade de Lisboa (Portuguese, 1982)

The Book of Disquiet is a work by the Portuguese author Fernando Pessoa . Published posthumously, The Book of Disquiet is a fragmentary lifetime project, left unedited by the author, who introduced it as a "factless autobiography."

„To write is to forget. Literature is the most agreeable way of ignoring life. Music soothes, the visual arts exhilarates, the performing arts (such as acting and dance) entertain. Literature, however, retreats from life by turning in into slumber. The other arts make no such retreat— some because they use visible and hence vital formulas, others because they live from human life itself.
This isn't the case with literature. Literature simulates life. A novel is a story of what never was, a play is a novel without narration. A poem is the expression of ideas or feelings a language no one uses, because no one talks in verse.“

— Fernando Pessoa, book The Book of Disquiet

Source: The Book of Disquiet

„To stagnate in the sun, goldenly, like an obscure lake surrounded by flowers.“

— Fernando Pessoa, book The Book of Disquiet

On a strictly intellectual life.
A Factless Autobiography, Richard Zenith Edition, Lisbon, 2006, p. 70
The Book of Disquiet
Original: Estagnar ao sol, douradamente, como um lago obscuro rodeado de flores.

„I wasn’t meant for reality, but life came and found me.“

— Fernando Pessoa, book The Book of Disquiet

Source: The Book of Disquiet

„All problems are unsolvable. The essence of the existence of a problem is that there is no solution. Looking for a fact means there is no fact. To think is not to know how to be.“

— Fernando Pessoa, book The Book of Disquiet

Ibid., p. 123
The Book of Disquiet
Original: Todos os problemas são insolúveis. A essência de haver um problema é não haver solução. Procurar um facto significa não haver um facto. Pensar é não saber existir.

„In order to understand, I destroyed myself.“

— Fernando Pessoa, book The Book of Disquiet

A Factless Autobiography, Richard Zenith Edition, Lisbon, 2006, p. 73
The Book of Disquiet
Original: Para compreender, destruí-me.

„We never love someone. We just love the idea we have of someone. It's a concept of ours - summing up, ourselves - that we love.“

— Fernando Pessoa, book The Book of Disquiet

Ibid., p. 125
Original: Nunca amamos niguém. Amamos, tão-somente, a ideia que fazemos de alguém. É a um conceito nosso — em suma, é a nós mesmos — que amamos.
Source: The Book of Disquiet

„I'd woken up early, and I took a long time getting ready to exist.“

— Fernando Pessoa, book The Book of Disquiet

Source: The Book of Disquiet

„My past is everything I failed to be.“

— Fernando Pessoa, book The Book of Disquiet

O meu passado é tudo quanto não consegui ser.
Source: The Book of Disquietude, trans. Richard Zenith, text 100

„We adore perfection because we can't have it; it would disgust us if we had it. Perfect is inhuman, because human is imperfect.“

— Fernando Pessoa, book The Book of Disquiet

Ibid., p. 249
Original: Adoramos a perfeição, porque não a podemos ter; repugná-la-íamos, se a tivéssemos. O perfeito é o desumano, porque o humano é imperfeito.
Source: The Book of Disquiet

„Literature is the most agreeable way of ignoring life.“

— Fernando Pessoa, book The Book of Disquiet

A literatura é a maneira mais agradável de ignorar a vida.
Variant: To write is to forget. Literature is the pleasantest way of ignoring life.
Source: The Book of Disquietude, trans. Richard Zenith, text 116

„I've always rejected being understood. To be understood is to prostitute oneself. I prefer to be taken seriously for what I'm not, remaining humanly unknown, with naturalness and all due respect.“

— Fernando Pessoa, book The Book of Disquiet

Repudiei sempre que me compreendessem. Ser compreendido é prostituir-se. Prefiro ser tomado a sério como o que não sou, ignorado humanamente, com decência e naturalidade.
Source: The Book of Disquietude, trans. Richard Zenith, text 128

„To know nothing about yourself is to live. To know yourself badly is to think.“

— Fernando Pessoa, book The Book of Disquiet

Source: The Book of Disquiet

„If you cannot live alone, you were born a slave.“

— Fernando Pessoa, book The Book of Disquiet

Ibid.
The Book of Disquiet
Original: Se te é impossível viver só, nasceste escravo.

„We are two abysses — a well staring at the sky.“

— Fernando Pessoa, book The Book of Disquiet

Ibid., p. 48
The Book of Disquiet
Original: Somos dois abismos — um poço fitando o céu.

„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.“

— Fernando Pessoa, book The Book of Disquiet

Source: The Book of Disquiet