Fernando Pessoa's most beautiful lines
The top 3 according to 46 votes from people: All is worthwhile / If the soul is not small. · I am nothing. / I'll never be anything. / I can't want to be anything. / Apart from that, I have in me all the… · O salty sea, how much of your salt / Is tears of Portugal!. (Updated Jun 8, 2026.)
The lines by Pessoa everybody quotes, with the heteronym who signs them (Álvaro de Campos, Alberto Caeiro, Ricardo Reis, Bernardo Soares) and the book or poem they come from.
Automatically translated (original in Português). See the original
Top 12
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1
All is worthwhile / If the soul is not small.
«Portuguese Sea», in Mensagem (1934), the only book in Portuguese he published in his lifetime.
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2
I am nothing. / I'll never be anything. / I can't want to be anything. / Apart from that, I have in me all the…
«I am nothing. / I'll never be anything. / I can't want to be anything. / Apart from that, I have in me all the dreams of the world.» Álvaro de Campos, the opening of «The Tobacco Shop» (1928).
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3
O salty sea, how much of your salt / Is tears of Portugal!
«Portuguese Sea», in Mensagem (1934).
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4
Whoever wants to go beyond Cape Bojador / Must go beyond pain.
«Portuguese Sea», in Mensagem (1934), about the cape the navigators rounded in 1434.
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5
My homeland is the Portuguese language.
Bernardo Soares, The Book of Disquiet (published 1982).
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6
To be great, be whole: exclude / Nothing, exaggerate nothing that is you.
Ricardo Reis, ode from 1933.
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7
I consider life an inn where I must stay until the coach from the abyss arrives.
Bernardo Soares, The Book of Disquiet.
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8
If the heart could think, it would stop beating.
Bernardo Soares, The Book of Disquiet.
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9
Myth is the nothing that is everything.
«Ulysses», in Mensagem (1934), on the legendary founding of Lisbon.
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10
The poet is a faker. / He fakes it so completely / That he even fakes the pain / He truly feels.
«Autopsychography» (1932), signed by Pessoa himself.
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11
The universe isn't an idea of mine. / My idea of the universe is an idea of mine.
Alberto Caeiro, the «master» of the heteronyms.
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12
Solitude devastates me; company oppresses me.
Bernardo Soares, The Book of Disquiet.
Candidates
They don't make it into the top 12… yet. Vote for them to move them up.
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13
God wills, man dreams, the work is born.
«The Prince», in Mensagem (1934), about Prince Henry the Navigator.
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14
I am the size of what I see / And not the size of my height.
Alberto Caeiro, «O Guardador de Rebanhos», poem VII.
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15
The Tagus is more beautiful than the river that flows through my village.
Alberto Caeiro, «O Guardador de Rebanhos», poem XX.
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16
Living is not necessary; what is necessary is to create.
From the text «Ancient navigators had a glorious phrase», from the motto «Navigation is necessary; living is not necessary».
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17
All love letters are / Ridiculous.
Álvaro de Campos, poem from 1935, shortly before Pessoa's death.
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18
To feel? Feel who reads!
From the poem «This» (1933), response to «Autopsychography».
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19
Great are the deserts, and everything is desert.
Álvaro de Campos, poem from 1930.
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20
Thinking is being sick in the eyes.
Alberto Caeiro, «O Guardador de Rebanhos», poem II.
How is this ranking ordered? By people's votes: each ▲ adds a point and each ▼ takes one away. Anyone can vote and add what is missing.
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Comments (7)
Voltei a esta lista para encontrar o verso do Bojador. Obrigado pelas fontes.
«Tudo vale a pena se a alma não é pequena», a minha favorita.
«Tudo vale a pena se a alma não é pequena», a frase que tenho tatuada.
Pessoa era muitos e todos geniais.
Faltam as do Caeiro, «Sou do tamanho do que vejo» e «pensar é estar doente dos olhos».
E «Todas as cartas de amor são ridículas» do Álvaro de Campos!
Tabacaria é o maior poema português do século XX.