Fernando Pessoa quotes
1888 – 1935 · Portugal, 20th century · poet, writer, critic, translator and essayist
About Fernando Pessoa
Born in Lisbon in 1888 and partly raised in Durban, Pessoa returned to Portugal in 1905 and supported himself as a commercial translator while publishing criticism, essays and poetry. He developed heteronyms—distinct authorial personas with their own biographies and styles—and left many manuscripts published posthumously after his death in 1935.
Works: Mensagem (Message) ; Livro do Desassossego (The Book of Disquiet) ; O Guardador de Rebanhos
Quotes
“Literature is the most agreeable way of ignoring life.”
Source: The Book of Disquietude, fragment (posthumous) · Check the source
Verified attributionWhat we know
- What is documented
- The sentence appears in Livro do Desassossego (The Book of Disquietude), a fragmentary work attributed mainly to the semi‑heteronym Bernardo Soares.
- What remains uncertain
- Pessoa left notebooks rather than a finished book; editors assembled the fragments after his death, so wording and order differ across editions and translations.
Pessoa means that literature doesn't just report life: it turns life into a pleasurable distance, a dreamed simulation. The line comes from The Book of Disquietude (as rendered by Richard Zenith), a fragmentary work that probes how writing can be both refuge and object of scrutiny.