Fernando Pessoa Art Quotations

Art lies because it's social.

I want to be a work of art, at least in my soul, since I can’t be one in my body.

A great emotion is too selfish ; it takes into itself all the blood of the spirit, and the congestion leaves the hands too cold to write. Three sorts of emotion produce great poetry - strong but quick emotions, seized upon for art as soon as they have passed, but not before they have passed ; strong and deep emotions in their remembrance along time after ; and false emotions, that is to say, emotions felt in the intellect. Not insincerity, but a translated sincerity, is the basis of all art.

What is art but the denial of life?

Art consists in making others feel what we feel.

Why is art beautiful? Because it's useless. Why is life ugly? Because it's all ends and purposes and intentions.

Art gives us the illusion of liberation from the sordid business of being.

The end of lower art is to please, the end of average art is to raise the top, the end of superior art is to free.

Literature is the most agreeable way of ignoring life.