I'm a man for whom the outside world is an inner Reality.
Interpretation
This quote suggests that one's perception of the world is shaped by internal experiences rather than external observations.
Fernando Pessoa's quote reflects a philosophical perspective that emphasizes the significance of inner thoughts and feelings in shaping an individual's understanding of reality. It implies that the way we interpret the outside world is deeply influenced by our inner state, suggesting that our perceptions and experiences are more subjective than objective, and that our internal reality defines how we engage with the world around us.
In practice
During a lecture on existentialism, this quote can be used to illustrate the importance of subjective experience.
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.
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.
Friends: not one. Just a few acquaintances who imagine they feel something for me and who might be sorry if a train ran over me and the funeral was on a rainy day.
The only peace that can be made with a dictator is once that must be based on deterrence. For today, the dictator may be your friend, but tomorrow he will need you as an enemy.
Man is born to live, to suffer, and to die, and what befalls him is a tragic lot. There is no denying this in the final end. But we must deny it all along the way.
It's a travesty that people have forced someone who is gay to have to make their case that they deserve the same basic rights...
I have a really interesting political point of view, and its not always something I say too loud at dinner tables here, but you cant go from a $2,000-a-night suite at La Mirage to a penitentiary and really understand it and come out a liberal. You cant. I wouldnt wish that experience on anyone else, but it was very, very, very educational for me and has informed my proclivities and politics every since.
The greatness of America lies not in being more enlightened than any other nation, but rather in her ability to repair her faults.
The body is an instrument, the mind its function, the witness and reward of its operation.
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