Ah, it's my longing for whom I might have been that distracts and torments me!
Interpretation
The quote expresses a deep sense of regret and distraction caused by the contemplation of unrealized potential.
Fernando Pessoa's quote reflects the human experience of longing for what could have been. It suggests that the awareness of missed opportunities or alternate paths in life can lead to inner turmoil and distraction, as one's thoughts are consumed by the 'what ifs' that haunt the mind. This sentiment captures the essence of personal dissatisfaction and the universal struggle with our choices and their consequences.
In practice
Use this quote in a discussion about the regrets of missed opportunities during a personal development seminar.
I have at this moment so many fundamental thoughts, so many truly metaphysical things to say, that I suddenly get tired and decide not to write any more, not to think any more, but to allow the fever of speaking to make me sleepy, and with my eyes closed, like a cat, I play with everything I could have said.
It's been months since I last wrote. I've lived in a state of mental slumber, leading the life of someone else. I've felt, very often, a vicarious happiness. I haven't existed. I've been someone else. I've lived without thinking.
We all have two lives: The true, the one we dreamed of in childhood And go on dreaming of as adults in a substratum of mist; the false, the one we love when we live with others, the practical, the useful, the one we end up by being put in a coffin.
I'm a man for whom the outside world is an inner Reality.
My dreams are a stupid refuge, like an umbrella against a thunderbolt.
The chill of what I won't feel gnaws at my present heart.
May all our contemporaries stand beside their brothers and sisters in humanity. Each one of you is called by Christ and must be a missionary of the Good News in word and in active charity.
No one can occupy your generosity except you. Who can occupy your patience when impatience roars through you? Who except you can choose not to act with judgment when all of your thoughts are judgmental? Your life is yours to live, no matter how you choose to live it. When you do not think about how you intend to live it, it lives you.
Truth is best (of all that is) good. As desired, what is being desired is truth for him who (represents) the best truth. (Gathas 27.14)
The gigantic tension before the shooting of an arrow, and the total relaxation seconds later, is my way of connecting to the universe.
We haven't yet got eyes that can gaze into all the splendour that God has created, but we shall get them one day; and that will be the finest fairy tale of all, for we shall be in it ourselves.
I am not interested in the past. I am interested in the future, for that is where I expect to spend the rest of my life.
Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.