I look for myself but find no one. I belong to the chrysanthemum hour of bright flowers placed in tall vases. I should make an ornament of my soul.
Interpretation
The quote reflects a search for identity and belonging, expressing a desire to create beauty from one's inner self.
In this quote, Fernando Pessoa articulates a poignant longing for self-discovery amidst existential uncertainty. He juxtaposes his search for identity with vivid imagery of beauty symbolized by the 'chrysanthemum hour,' suggesting that while he may feel lost in understanding himself, he recognizes the importance of transforming his soul into something that enriches the world around him, akin to how flowers beautify a space.
In practice
This quote can be used in a motivational speech about finding one's true self amidst life's chaos.
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.
Morality and values depend on the existence of conscious minds - and specifically on the fact that such minds can experience various forms of well-being and suffering in this universe.
What do sad complaints avail if the offense is not cut down by punishment.
God's pleasure--the beauty creation possesses in his regard--underlies the distinct being of creation, and so beauty is the first and truest word concerning all that appears within being; beauty is the showing of what is; God looked upon what he had wrought and saw that it was good.
All happenings, great and small, are parables whereby God speaks. The art of life is to get the message. To see all that is offered us at the windows of the soul, and to reach out and receive what is offered, this is the art of living.
The fundamental law of the militia is, that it be created, directed and commanded by the laws, and ever for the support of the laws.
It is not good to be too free. It is not good to have everything one wants.
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