To have opinions is to sell out to youself. To have no opinions is to exist. To have every opinion is to be a poet.
Interpretation
The quote suggests that having opinions can lead to a loss of authenticity, while being devoid of them signifies mere existence. Embracing a multitude of opinions is an artistic expression akin to being a poet.
Fernando Pessoa's quote reflects on the nature of opinions and existence. It posits that having fixed opinions can be seen as a form of self-betrayal, as it limits one's potential and depth of thought. In contrast, existing without opinions leads to a passive life, lacking engagement and awareness. The most profound state, according to Pessoa, is that of a poet, who is free to explore and embody a myriad of perspectives, creating meaning and beauty from the complexity of human experience.
In practice
This quote can be shared in a discussion about the value of open-mindedness in creative fields.
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.
People who understand everything get no stories.
It is so many years before one can believe enough in what one feels even to know what the feeling is
I have not been able to discover whether there exists a precise French equivalent for the common Anglo-American expression 'killing time.' It's a very crass and breezy expression, when you ponder it for a moment, considering that time, after all, is killing us.
The Bible is the cornerstone of liberty.
I am life that wants to live, in the midst of life that wants to live.
The really difficult moral issues arise, not from a confrontation of good and evil, but from a collision between two goods
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