All is worthwhile if the soul is not small.
Interpretation
Having a grand perspective makes life's experiences valuable.
This quote by Fernando Pessoa emphasizes the importance of having a broad and open-minded outlook. A 'small soul' reflects narrow thinking or limited experiences, while a larger soul appreciates the richness and complexity of life, making every moment and experience worthwhile.
In practice
During a motivational speech, to encourage people to embrace challenges with a greater perspective.
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.
Everyone can recognize history when it happens. Everyone can recognize history after is has happened; but only the wise man knows at the moment what is vital and permanent, what is lasting and memorable.
Make everything as simple as possible, but not simpler.
Wrinkles here and there seem unimportant compared to the Gestalt of the whole person I have become in this past year.
Sometimes you had to take a look at yourself and then look away.
If you put your hand into a fire, does anyone have to tell you to move it? Do you have to decide? No: When your hand starts to burn, it moves. You donβt have to direct it; the hand moves itself. In the same way, once you understand, through inquiry, that an untrue thought causes suffering, you move away from it.
Appreciation has become my destiny in life. Perhaps it's the instinct of a polar bear enjoying hibernation in the vast snows.
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