There is no happiness without knowledge. But knowledge of happiness is unhappy; for knowing ourselves happy is knowing ourselves passing through happiness, and having to, immediatly at once, leave it behind. To know is to kill, in happiness as in everything. Not to know, though, is not to exist.
About this quote
- What does it mean?
- Knowledge of happiness destroys the immediacy of feeling it, yet ignorance means non-existence.
- In plain terms
- Knowing you are happy makes the happy moment end.
- What can you take from it?
- Awareness kills the feeling of happiness.
Where it applies
Putting it to work
Questions to consider
- Does thinking about joy end it?
- Can you be happy without knowing?
Another view
Some knowledge enhances happiness rather than destroying it.
More from Fernando Pessoa
And as well as I dream, I reason if I want, for that's just another kind of dream.
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