I'm astounded whenever I finish something. Astounded and distressed. My perfectionist instinct should inhibit me from finishing: it should inhibit me from even beginning. But I get distracted and start doing something. What I achieve is not the product of an act of my will but of my will's surrender. I begin because I don't have the strength to think; I finish because I don't have the courage to quit. This book is my cowardice.

Unlike Caeiro who asks nothing of life he asks too much. Faustino Antunes" April 10 1907. He does not question anything whatsoever; he calmly accepts the world as it is.

He also wrote in and translated from English and French. Fernando Pessoa born Fernando António Nogueira de Seabra Pessoa (Portuguese pronunciation: [feɾˈnɐ̃du ɐ̃ˈtɔnju nuˈgɐi̯ɾɐ dɨ siˈabɾɐ pɨˈsoɐ]; June 13 1888 – November 30 1935) was a Portuguese poet writer literary critic translator publiFernando Pessoar and philosopher described as one of the most significant literary figures of the 20th century and one of the greatest poets in the Portuguese language.