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About this quote

What does it mean?
The speaker rejects being defined as either a hedonist or a mystic.
In plain terms
I am not a simple person of pleasure or a spiritual person.
What can you take from it?
Resist labels that try to categorize your complex identity.

Where it applies

  • self-introduction
  • writing memoirs
  • defining oneself

Putting it to work

  • rejecting labels
  • exploring identity
  • writing creatively

Questions to consider

  • Can you define yourself?
  • Are labels useful?

Another view

People often simplify others to understand them better.

More from Fernando Pessoa

  1. Wasting time has an esthetics to it.

    Permalink to quote #133
  2. It's in an inland sea that the river of my life ended.

    Permalink to quote #135
  3. For the moment being, given that we live in society, the only duty of superior men is to reduce to a minimum their participation in the tribe's life. Not to re…

    Permalink to quote #132

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