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I sometimes think that I enjoy suffering. But the truth is I would prefer something else.
Fernando Pessoa
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Interpretation

What this quote means

The quote reflects a struggle between finding comfort in suffering and the desire for something better.

Fernando Pessoa expresses a complex relationship with suffering in this quote, suggesting that while there may be a certain familiarity or twisted enjoyment in enduring hardships, he ultimately longs for a more fulfilling experience. This inner conflict highlights the human tendency to cling to what is known, even if it is painful, while yearning for change and improvement in one's emotional state.

Themes

SufferingDesireChangeComfortStruggle

In practice

Example use cases

This quote can be used in a discussion about resilience and the relationship with pain.

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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