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."

“Whether or not they exist, we're slaves to the gods.”

Fernando Pessoa book The Book of Disquiet

A Factless Autobiography, number 21, tr. by Richard Zenith (Penguin Classics edition)
Source: The Book of Disquiet

“And, like the great damned souls, I shall always feel that thinking is worth more than living.”

Fernando Pessoa book The Book of Disquiet

Source: The Book of Disquiet

“Having never discovered qualities in myself that might attract someone else, I could never believe that anyone felt attracted to me.”

Fernando Pessoa book The Book of Disquiet

Source: The Book of Disquiet

“But do we really live? To live without knowing what life is - is that living?”

Fernando Pessoa book The Book of Disquiet

Source: The Book of Disquiet

“Life is what we make of it. Travel is the traveler. What we see isn't what we see but what we are.”

Fernando Pessoa book The Book of Disquiet

Original: (pt) Viajar? Para viajar basta existir. [...] Para quê viajar? Em Madrid, em Berlim, na Pérsia, na China, nos Pólos ambos, onde estaria eu senão em mim mesmo, e no tipo e género das minhas sensações?

A vida é o que fazemos dela. As viagens são os viajantes. O que vemos não é o que vemos, senão o que somos.
Source: The Book of Disquiet, p. 360
Context: To travel? In order to travel it's enough to be. […] Why travel? In Madrid, in Berlin, in Persia, in China, at the Poles both, where would I be but in myself, and in the sort and kind of my sensations?

Life is what we make of it. Travels are travellers. What we see is not what we see but what we are.

“I don't know what I feel or what I want to feel. I don't know what to think or what I am.”

Fernando Pessoa book The Book of Disquiet

Source: The Book of Disquiet

“The essence of what I desire is simply this: to sleep away life.”

Fernando Pessoa book The Book of Disquiet

Source: The Book of Disquiet

“Ah, it's my longing for whom I might have been that distracts and torments me!”

Fernando Pessoa book The Book of Disquiet

Source: The Book of Disquiet

“I'm sick of everything, and of the everythingness of everything.”

Fernando Pessoa book The Book of Disquiet

Source: The Book of Disquiet

“I've never done anything but dream. This, and this alone, has been the meaning of my life. My only real concern has been my inner life.”

Fernando Pessoa book The Book of Disquiet

Source: The Book of Disquiet

“To 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 Pessoa book The Book of Disquiet

Source: Libro del desasosiego

“I feel as if I'm always on the verge of waking up.”

Fernando Pessoa book The Book of Disquiet

Source: The Book of Disquiet

“What we see is not what we see but what we are.”

Fernando Pessoa book The Book of Disquiet

<p>Original: Viajar? Para viajar basta existir. [...] Para quê viajar? Em Madrid, em Berlim, na Pérsia, na China, nos Pólos ambos, onde estaria eu senão em mim mesmo, e no tipo e género das minhas sensações?</p><p>A vida é o que fazemos dela. As viagens são os viajantes. O que vemos não é o que vemos, senão o que somos.</p>
Ibid., p. 360
The Book of Disquiet
Context: p>To travel? In order to travel it's enough to be. [... ] Why travel? In Madrid, in Berlin, in Persia, in China, at the Poles both, where would I be but in myself, and in the sort and kind of my sensations?Life is what we make of it. Travels are travellers. What we see is not what we see but what we are.</p

“All pleasure is a vice, for seeking pleasure is what everybody does in life, and the only dark vice is doing what everybody does.”

Fernando Pessoa book The Book of Disquiet

Ibid., p. 265
The Book of Disquiet
Original: Todo o prazer é um vício, porque buscar o prazer é o que todos fazem na vida, e o único vício negro é fazer o que toda a gente faz.

“I think of life as an inn where I have to stay until the abyss coach arrives. I don't know where it will take me, for I know nothing.”

Fernando Pessoa book The Book of Disquiet

A Factless Autobiography, Richard Zenith Edition, Lisbon, 2006, p. 40
The Book of Disquiet
Original: Considero a vida uma estalagem onde tenho que me demorar até que chegue a diligência do abismo. Não sei onde ela me levará, porque não sei nada.

“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.

“… the painful intensity of my sensations, even when they're happy ones; the blissful intensity of my sensations, even when they're sad.”

Fernando Pessoa book The Book of Disquiet

Source: The Book of Disquiet

“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.

“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've always been an ironic dreamer, unfaithful to my inner promises.
Like a complete outsider, a casual observer of whom I thought I was,
I've always enjoyed watching my daydreams go down in defeat.
I was never convinced of what I believed in.
I filled my hands with sand, called it gold, and opened them up to let it slide through.
Words were my only truth.
When the right words were said, all was done; the rest was the sand that had always been.”

Fernando Pessoa book The Book of Disquiet

Source: The Book of Disquiet