I asked for very little from life, and even this little was denied me. A nearby field, a ray of sunlight, a little bit of calm along with a bit of bread, not to feel oppressed by the knowledge that I exist, not to demand anything from others, and not to have others demand anything from me - this was denied me, like the spare change we might deny a beggar not because we're mean-hearted but because we don't feel like unbuttoning our coat.
Interpretation
The quote expresses the idea of a simple, yet unfulfilled desire for basic comforts and peace in life.
In this quote, Fernando Pessoa reflects on the minimal needs he has from life, highlighting a deep sense of existential disappointment. He articulates a longing for the simple pleasures of nature and tranquility, as well as a wish to disengage from societal demands and expectations. His metaphor of denying spare change to a beggar underlines the emotional struggle against non-fulfillment, illustrating how even the simplest wishes can be denied, not out of malice, but due to the complexities of human existence.
In practice
In a philosophy class discussing existentialism, this quote can illustrate the struggle with life's simple desires.
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.
No human being should ever have to fear for his own life because of political or religious beliefs. We are all in this together, my friends, the rich, the poor, the red, white, black, brown and yellow. We share responsibility for Mother Earth and those who live and breathe upon her ..never forget that.
Government is the great fiction, through which everybody endeavors to live at the expense of everybody else.
Time spent arguing with the faithful is, oddly enough, almost never wasted.
A kernel of truth lurks at the heart of religion, because spiritual experience, ethical behavior, and strong communities are essential for human happiness. And yet our religious traditions are intellectually defunct and politically ruinous. While spiritual experience is clearly a natural propensity of the human mind, we need not believe anything on insufficient evidence to actualize it.
I view great cities as pestilential to the morals, the health and the liberties of man. True, they nourish some of the elegant arts; but the useful ones can thrive elsewhere; and less perfection in the others, with more health, virtue and freedom, would be my choice.
You die, but most of what you have accumulated will not be lost; you are leaving a message in a bottle.
Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.