All beginnings are involuntary.
Interpretation
All beginnings happen without our control or desire.
This quote by Fernando Pessoa implies that every new beginning occurs without our conscious choice, indicating that change and new experiences are often thrust upon us rather than initiated by us. It highlights the involuntary nature of starting anew, suggesting that while we may desire change, the actual act of beginning is often beyond our control.
In practice
This quote is perfect for a motivational speech about embracing unexpected changes.
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.
New thoughts and hopes were whirling through my mind, and all the colours of my life were changing.
I think violence against women in America has become ordinary - it's been made absolutely acceptable.
It is easier to change a man's religion than to change his diet.
If I'm able to communicate one thing to adults, it would be this: it should not be easier to purchase a gun than it is to obtain a driver's license, and military-grade weapons should not be accessible in civilian settings.
The greatest discovery of my generation is that a human being can alter his life by altering his attitudes.
It will be the people with the greatest love, not the most information, who will influence us to change.
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