I have now so many fundamental thoughts, so many really metaphysical things to say, that I suddenly get tired and decide not to write more, not to think more, but allow the fever of saying to make me sleepy, and fondle, with closed eyes, as if to a cat, all that I could have said.
About this quote
- What does it mean?
- Overwhelming thoughts lead to exhaustion; the speaker chooses to savor the potential of unsaid ideas rather than articulating them.
- In plain terms
- I have too many ideas to write them all, so I just think about saying them.
- What can you take from it?
- Sometimes the potential to speak is more relaxing than speaking.
Where it applies
Putting it to work
Questions to consider
- Is the idea better than the expression?
- When does thinking become a burden?
Another view
It romanticizes inactivity over the work of actual creation.
More from Fernando Pessoa
I believe that saying a thing is to keep its virtues and take away its terror.
Permalink to quote #31 I'm all those things, even though I don't want to, in the confuse depth of my fatal sensibility.
Permalink to quote #33 Fraternity has subtleties.
Permalink to quote #30
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