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Let's develop theories, patiently and honestly thinking them out, in order to promptly act against them – acting and justifying our actions with new theories that condemn them. Let's cut a path in life and then go immediately against that path. Let's adopt all the poses and gestures of something we aren't and don't even wish to be, and don't even wish to taken for being.
Fernando Pessoa
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Interpretation

What this quote means

The quote emphasizes the importance of questioning established ideas and norms while simultaneously acknowledging the complexities of identity and belief.

Fernando Pessoa's quote encourages a critical approach to understanding life and our actions. It suggests that we should develop theories thoughtfully, while being aware of the contradictions in our choices and identities. By advocating for a reflective yet bold stance, the quote illustrates the tension between conformity and self-authenticity, highlighting the experimental nature of existence where one must navigate through beliefs and actions that may not align with one's true self.

Themes

TheoryIdentityActionContradictionPhilosophy

In practice

Example use cases

In a discussion about self-identity during a psychology class.

More from Fernando Pessoa

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.
Fernando PessoaRead
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.
Fernando PessoaRead
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.
Fernando PessoaRead
I'm a man for whom the outside world is an inner Reality.
Fernando PessoaRead
My dreams are a stupid refuge, like an umbrella against a thunderbolt.
Fernando PessoaRead
The chill of what I won't feel gnaws at my present heart.
Fernando PessoaRead

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