“I’ve never aspired to be more than a dreamer. I paid no attention to those who spoke to me of living. I’ve always belonged to what isn’t where I am and to what I could never be. Whatever isn’t mine, no matter how base, has always had poetry for me. The only thing I’ve loved is nothing at all. The only thing I’ve desired is what I couldn’t even imagine. All I asked of life is that it go on by without my feeling it. All I demanded of love is that it never stop being a distant dream. In my own inner landscapes, all of them unreal, I’ve always been attracted to what’s in the distance, and the hazy aqueducts - almost out of sight in my dreamed landscapes - had a dreamy sweetness in relation to the rest of the landscape, a sweetness that enabled me to love them.”
More from Fernando Pessoa
“My soul is impatient with itself, as with a bothersome child; its restlessness keeps…”
“My memories have turned into anxieties.”
“I wasn’t meant for reality, but life came and found me.”
“I hear the wind blow, and I feel that it was worth being born just to hear the wind blow.”