To be understood is to prostitute oneself.

Fernando Pessoa, The Book of Disquiet

I don't know what I feel or what I want to feel. I don't know what to think or what I am.

Fernando Pessoa, The Book of Disquiet

I'm always horrified whenever I finish anything. Horrified and desolate. My instinct for perfection should inhibit me from ever finishing anything; it should in fact inhibit me from ever beginning. But I become distracted and do things. My accomplishments are not the product of my applied will but a giving away of my will. I begin because I don't have the strength to think; I finish because I don't have soul enough to stop things. This book is my cowardice.

Fernando Pessoa, The Book of Disquiet

Life is full of paradoxes, as roses are of thorns.

Fernando Pessoa, The Book of Disquiet