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
Interpretation
The quote expresses a desire for authenticity over being fully understood by others, suggesting that compromising oneself for understanding can diminish one's individuality.
Fernando Pessoa's quote highlights the complex relationship between self-perception and how we are perceived by others. It suggests that striving for understanding can lead to a loss of authenticity, as individuals may conform to others' expectations in order to be accepted. Instead, Pessoa advocates for embracing the mystery of one's self and maintaining respect for one's individuality, regardless of how one is misunderstood.
In practice
In a speech about individuality, one might quote this to emphasize the importance of remaining true to oneself.
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.
It became clear over time that white people have extremely low thresholds for enduring any discomfort associated with challenges to our racial worldviews.
The metaphor for Palestine is stronger than the Palestine of reality.
Death and disaster are at our shoulders every second of our lives, trying to get at us. Missing, a lot of the time. A lot of miles on the motorway without a front wheel blow-out. A lot of viruses that slither through our bodies without snagging. A lot of pianos that fall a minute after we've passed. Or a month, it makes no difference. So unless we're going to get down on our knees and give thanks every time disaster misses, it makes no sense to moan when it strikes.
I am concerned for the security of our great Nation; not so much because of any threat from without, but because of the insidious forces working from within.
It was not the volume of sin that sent Christ to the cross; it was the fact of sin.
I can only become perfectly free by serving the will of God.
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