As always, thank you for watching. You can check out more of my essays on writers and philosophers in my book here: www.amazon.com/dp/B0B6XPPNJY

The worst thing about self awareness is it takes away the bliss of ignorance. I am almost jealous of people who just live and not think much.

Perhaps the most comforting thing about delving into this level of the human experience is knowing there are a few other humans who dared to think as far as you did, and they feel the terror, beauty, and absurdity of it all just as much as you do.

Being self aware is weird. I both know who I am and have no clue who I am. I’m both the narrator and main character of my own life, and I spend a great deal of my time analyzing myself from the 3rd person. Every word I say, every movement I make, and even every thought I think has been carefully curated to create a ‘character’ of me. I know everything about myself, so it feels like I know nothing about myself. I have no idea whether my feelings are real or whether I fabricated them in order to fit my artificial identity. Even the most ‘raw’ parts of my emotion are intentionally raw, and it’s caused me to feel absolutely horrible, knowing that even my truest self might not actually be my truest self, and is just what I create my truest self to look like. I don’t feel human.

"Every deep thinker is more afraid of being understood than of being misunderstood." - Friedrich Nietzsche

Seems that if you ask yourself a question for long enough, the answer no longer matters.

I get so caught up in self-awareness that I haven’t done anything at all in life. I’ve been hyper focused on my every move and breath for half my life only to realize I never looked at the bigger picture. I’m so isolated and constantly overwhelmed and it’s all my own doing. I understood every word of this video, I can’t imagine living a life not thinking this way.

You know a video is beyond exceptional when the comment section isn’t filled with compliments and praise but people philosophising about life. Bravo!

I'm from Portugal, and in school it was mandatory to study Fernando Pessoa. I hated it so much. I think he'd hate it as well. Fernando Pessoa, just like most great writers, you find them in the time of your life you need them the most.

I feel like an observer. A perpetual student. An examiner of information of sorts. A feeler of feelings, an analyst of reality. It’s all I ever do and think, it’s all I really know.

The hardest part is the isolation that comes with this level of self awareness.

Happy, scared and relieved that i get this guy. Self awareness is a blessing until its a curse, seeing the world differently from others can be painfully lonely and its also really frustrating to be constantly stuck in an existential crisis.

Being self aware is agony. especially when u are stuck with mental illness, bad habits, addictions, etc that u can't control. sometimes, you confuse who is actually "aware", is it your body, or perhaps the voices in your head arguing over justifications of every actions u made. even without emotional intelligence, you are aware of how your actions affect others physically and emotionally. it feels like the best persona of yourself is trapped inside your head and act as the "voices" and the worst version of you act as the vessel that move by your command yet it feels wrong. to become self aware is to lead yourself to understand the nonexisting and pointless thoughts that haunts you when your vessel don't listen.

These kind of stories makes you wonder, how many of such incredible works of so many people are or might be out there waiting to be found, and still so many lost forever.

Self awareness almost feels like you know more then should, it allows you to be so connected with yourself you realize your lack of importance and purpose, you are but a grain of sand on the eternal beach

being a deep thinker is being terrified you’re going to think too much and realize something you weren’t supposed to and you’re never going to see anything the same again

This was honestly one of the toughest things I put myself through. I remember being outside and it was as if I “woke up” I questioned everything and dove into trying to find the answer to everything. I felt mad, I felt like nothing was real. It got to a point where every second of my life I was aware of what I was doing. It wasn’t fun because i couldn’t allow myself to dive into whatever was happening. Whenever I try to explain this to anyone else I try to make them feel, and understand my experience but 1. I wouldn’t want them to go through that and 2. It’s such a strong experience that words can’t properly explain what I went through / go through

Fernando Pessoa was not an obscure figure in his time in Lisbon. He was a very active member of the modernist movement in Portugal, being one of the creators of Orpheu magazine, and friend of great poets and writers such as Mário de Sá Carneiro and others. His poetry is widely studied in Brazil and Portugal.

"The truly wise man is the man who lets external events trouble him as little as possible. To do this, he needs to armor himself by surrounding himself with realities that are closer to him than those events, and through which the events reach him, changed so as to accord with those realities." - Fernando Pessoa

Coming to this realization (in some aspects) is what sent me through a severe depression, still to this day. A few months after graduating HS & turning 18, I got a glimpse of the real world and this kind of info hit me like a truck. What the most frustrating & damaging part was that I couldn’t express these thoughts/feelings to anyone, family nor friend, and have them be reciprocated, or them just dismissing it as “overthinking” or that I’m crazy or just I’m talking nonsense. They didn’t start taking what I said seriously until I started showing visible signs of depression (or at least the ones they became aware of) about a year later. By that point I was a complete mess. I never socialized apart from work, everything was dirty, got addicted to drugs, and started speaking in monotone/with no energy. I admitted myself to a psych ward twice & was placed on suicide watch the first time. 99% of the time I tried expressing how I felt to a “professional” they would dismiss it as the modern “woke” BS ppl spew nowadays & offered me medication (which I denied). This was a few months after I had turned 18, I am 24 now. What is & has kept me going through all of this is, thankfully, knowing I’m not truly alone. I may not be able to talk directly to others, or even people who are aware of more than I, but knowing that others are experiencing the same, and more, gives me a level of comfort I had never known. That being said, it genuinely pains my soul knowing Fernando Pessoa lived this experience all by himself. That same realization is what drove me to almost commit suicide. I couldn’t imagine the weight of bearing that burden until death. I wish more people would understand, no matter what level/wavelength they’re on: You Are Not Alone. Keep your head up!

It’s interesting how majority of existential crisis are induced by traumatic experiences. I honestly think I thought so deep I went a little insane. I just had the self awareness to realise that I’d come across crazy to others. It’s a bitter sweet, once you become fully self aware, you can’t lie to yourself…. You see the ego in others and ignorance truly is bliss.

"It sometimes occurs to me with sad delight, that if one day the sentences I write are read and admired, then at last I'll have my own kin, people who understand me, my true family in which to be born and loved. But far from being born into it, I'll have already died long ago." I feel sad yet happy at the same time reading this. Thanks

I thought like this for about a year and had to step away from it. It was effecting my sanity and my health. And the worst part of it is; you can’t talk about it with other people very much bc most people can’t comprehend thinking that far. It’s just scary.

I truly think he had borderline personality disorder but not the one media tells you about, but the real one: emptiness, doubt of self, feeling nothing but also feeling everything, periods of emotional unstability, the rabbit hole while trying to understand his existence... it was probably triggered because of losing his family. With no antidepressants, that disorder is truly destructive of one-self.

It's interesting how this video groups together many people going through rough times. People who aren't struggling in some way likely aren't watching this video, it's what I've come to realize when going through tough times, videos recommended usually reflect this. I hope that you guys all get through it.

This goes to show that your childhood is such a massive part of not only who you are but who you will become. It's hard to deny that experiencing such trauma as a little boy wasn't the root to his undeniable self awareness and suffering.

From Fernando Pessoa: "After Everything" From everything three things remained The certanty that we are always starting The certanty that we must go on The certanty that we can be interrupted before finishing So we must Turn that interruption into a new path From a fall a new dance step From the fear a ladder From the dream a bridge From a quest a meeting

As a portuguese person who watches commentary or documentary videos a lot I never thought I’d see one about Fernando Pessoa. I mean yeah he’s famous but I thought people outside of Portugal didn’t really know about him 😭 Either way I’m studying him in school at the moment, my favorite poem of his is “Quando vier a Primavera” which they don’t teach in my school but I just found the poem somewhere 🙏🏻

Psilocybin saved my life. I was addicted to heroin for 15 years and after Psilocybin treatment I will be 3 years clean in September. I have zero cravings. This is something that truly needs to be more broadly used in addiction treatment.

If you ask yourself “what’s the point?”, the point is whatever you decide is the point. Find something meaningful to you and live for it, dive towards it and grab it tight and never let it go, because that is what will bring you comfort and resolution. It could be a person, a passion, a way of life, as long as it means something to you it’s worth pursuing and clinging to it.

The more I learn the more confused about my nature I become. The older I get, the more strange life becomes. I felt like I was meant to be here as a child. Now I just feel like I’m visiting

Of course I could never express these feelings as poetic and beautifully as he did, but I certainly relate to this a lot. This is something that caused a huge existential crisis in me. It made me wonder if I should just end my life, because it seemed so pointless, meaningless. I think so deeply and I don’t have people who relate to this. I don’t relate to the problems of my peers because they care so much about the littlest things. But just as I was starting to slip way too deep into this, I started reading a few books. Because despite feeling so nihilistic about life, I still cared to keep going. And especially books like those about the Japanese concept of ikigai made me realize that there is actually a huge point to life. Life is about living. It’s about being in the moment. When I finally realized this and put it into action, slowing down my life, paying attention to the smallest things, and feeling happy about them, I became happier. I just went to my prom yesterday, after I didn’t see my peers for a few weeks during finals, and the detox from the drama made it possible for me to detach from their drama as well. I danced, although I can’t dance. I literally didn’t care. I danced with friends of my peers that I didn’t even know, something I would’ve never done. Keeping away from all that drama and unimportant things, I managed to live in the moment and enjoy it. I was happy just being there and feeling alive. Nowadays, after this sort of detox from drama and overstimulation of dopamine from social media such as tiktok, I managed to come down to a level of peace of mind where I literally get happy just walking in the kitchen and finding out my family bought some fruits I like. Literally. I get happy looking out the window and seeing cute birds walking around. The smallest things are the most precious. Okay I don’t really know what else to say. Just enjoy life. If you are at this kind of existential crisis point, please keep going. No matter what. If you feel like nothing matters, just please take a look around. There are always things that matter. Family. Friends. Even material things that make you happy. They are not to be taken for granted. Maybe the sun is shining. Maybe it’s raining and you might think that sucks, but a cute quote I just read today says “no rain, no flowers”. It will pass and bring even more beauty. And that actually can be passed on to the whole of life. Downs will pass eventually. You might need to take a little action depending on your situation, but it will certainly pass in some way. And then, the up arrives, and it will bring beauty. Live in the moment and realize what makes you happy. Your delicious lunch, the beautiful weather, the nice smell of flowers. A beautiful person, even a stranger. Make a new friend, go outside. Enjoy life. It is pointless. Yes. But you’re already here so why not enjoy it. Fighting the fact that you’re alive is so much harder and more painful, giving up on life, it’s a very personal decision. But accepting that everyone has the ability to become happy, can change your outlook on life. Look for the positive things. It will make you smile. It takes a ton of time but eventually you will realize that everything is a coin, everything has two side. Choose the one that makes you happy. Your reality is subjective. Glass half full, half empty. Rain is bad or it waters the earth. It is up to you, so choose to be happy if you want to be happy. It is a decision. You deserve to be happy. I love you all and I hope despite of this probably being a novel by now, might have inspired someone to rethink some views on life ❤️

As a native Portuguese speaker, I feel privileged to have read such rich and profound literature in an unaltered form. Precisely because of the heteronyms he created, in Brazil he is nicknamed Fernando Pessoas, pessoa meaning person, as the video showed, and pessoas meaning its plural (people). He was all of them, and they were all him.

He understood the horror of infinite potential and it was enough to consume him entirely. If you've ever glimpsed it with your mind, you understand why we are blessed to be so small.

"Não sou nada. Nunca serei nada. Não posso querer ser nada. À parte isso, tenho em mim todos os sonhos do mundo."

This is pure madness. IVE BEEN there for years. So absobed into tought and absolutely disconected from reality. Thats like living with only 50 % of yourself,the intelectual one, trying to fill the other 50% but failing to do so. Having dogs and animals showed me how to just exist without freaking out about it. Infinite and emptyness are not meant to be understood intellectually

Being human is less about discovering a self and more about creating a self. This is the essence of what it means to be human: creating what it means to be human.

I feel for this man. I have the same problem and it's not fun. My biggest question is what's the point? You literally go down a rabbit hole and it drives you crazy if you keep going. I see things different than others and do things differently. I'm not the most literate person in the world but I have caught myself asking myself questions and talking to myself. Trying to answer them with no real outcome

Im about 80 pages into the book of disquiet and I can’t remember the last time a book had me dissecting paragraphs this intensely. The way he uses metaphors is beautiful.

I got chills, ive been myself documenting my own spiral into an existential nihilistic philosophy/depression. Hearing that someone was experiencing life like i do kinda makes me feel not so lonely and perturbated at the same time, since it validates every sense of meaningless that fills my thoughts.

I often used to talk about the bliss of ignorance but for me it’s so hard to try to be blissful in ignorance. I can’t help having that consciousness in the back of my head at all times and yes it has saved me but it has also has held me back.

He sounds like he felt isolated by the dissociation he felt after the loss of his father and brother, as well as his home land. That dissociation it seems followed him into the rest of his life, and as a way to try and save himself, he moved back to his country of origin... but that feeling of dissociation followed him. All this giving him an acute awareness of himself as a separate entity from himself. He lived in the dissociation brought on by loss until it swallowed him whole and it became him. He was the object staring out over a sea of memory and experience, and he couldn't step away from that, so he fragmented his personality, only metaphorically, so that he could write of it from a more objective point of view. Even though that "more objective" perspective could be seen now as somewhat chaotic. What he was essentially trying to do by writing under different pseudonyms, was to anchor himself in a vast and perilous ocean of his introspection and awareness, which ultimately was rooted in his intense dissociation. He wanted to be remembered and have a sense of kinship, but he felt the pursuit of that for himself to be hopeless... and so after realizing that, he felt his only option left was to observe and record, because that was the object he existed as, that was his role, his livelihood, his burden in life, and that was all he could muster the courage to accomplish. Surely though, I'm projecting, and I'll admit I relate to this man a great deal, these are only my assumptions and thoughts after hearing an excerpt of his final work read by a man I do not know over the medium of video and the internet. Thanks for reading my comment stranger and inwish you well.

It truly amazes me and baffles me in those moments where I am self-aware enough to really put myself into perspective, to put my life into perspective as compared to the grand scheme, or whatever. It is super impressive, and I often wonder if other animal species, or species in general have these traits, these thoughts, these existential dreads and worries. Humans are so fascinating, I truly fascinate myself, and that by itself is crazy!

I shed tears without getting a runny nose or my heart rate changing, i felt so seen and heard felt like a hug that i’ve needed for so long. The living passoa.

this just explained the dilemma i've been having for the past 23 years, we're taught that understanding our own metacognition is important but i've found that it only makes living even harder

In Portugal, this book was mandatory to study in High school. Now Fernando Pessoa's poems as himself or as his heteronyms are the only content we study about this brilliant Poet. Speaking of experience.

This video essay moved me. I would be lying if I said I didn't feel tears well up in my eyes as Pessoa described being understood only after his passing. This life, can be a very morose and sobering experience, and I often find myself feeling...not truly human. How do all these people around me keep moving, day after day, aware of themselves? I wish I could've hugged Pessoa, told him he is not alone, that I understand completely and that he has put into beautiful words what I have failed to express to important people in my life, watching them leave as I struggled with the basic task of understanding myself. I am Pessoa's kin, thankful for his life and his writing.

“Life is so short” not for the self-aware person…every moment is filled with heavy introspection, it’s liberating but my gosh is it exhausting

That feeling of the more you watch this video, the more you feel connected to him, the heavier it feels deep in your heart that even a long sigh cannot take that heaviness away.

“There are ships sailing to many ports, but not a single one goes to where life is not painful”. - Fernando Pessoa; ‘The Book of Disquiet’.

My crippling self-awareness often strangles the beauty and joy out of what would otherwise be amazing experiences. “Stop thinking, you’re distracting yourself. Now you’re thinking about stopping thinking. Now you’re thinking about how you’re angry that you’re getting distracted by thoughts. Stop. STOP! I guess I’ll give up… What was I doing again?”

I have never felt so connected to any book or author before. It feels like I am connecting to my own soul, to my soulmate, to a dead person whose soul is still alive, in these letters, these words, I feel as though we are not alone, I feel we understand eachother completely.

"The impossibility of understanding and communicating one's internal experiences while on this free fall lends itself to a lifetime of disquiet and disorientation" I feel so seen in this moment. I hope one day I will come across another deep thinker like myself so I will not feel so utterly alone even though I am surrounded by people.

Omg... it's beautiful to see a video essay about Pessoa by an english-speaking man :) To me, Pessoa is the only person I'd ever even consider to be anything close to an "idol", and I am delighted to see people worldwide appreciating his existence. And YES, you've said something that's very true and that portuguese people typically barely even mention - his name is PESSOA / PERSON. It is mind-blowing. It's almost as if he was born to represent a sort of totem for "Man". And his words are the purest I've ever read, because he wasn't blinded by the sight of illusions such as success, he was writing alone, for no one but himself, and died without experiencing success in any way - that made his writing the most honest and purest possible. It's beautiful. Great video, thanks!

That's what I call a "cursed" book, something so profound that leaves you numb.

This video and these comments have bought me to tears. Discovering other people feeling and thinking and existing exactly the way I have all my life. We’re not so alone in our aloneness. Yet still so alone and always thinking and feeling.

Never have I heard the way I've felt for years put in such a beautiful manner.

"My soul is impatient with itself, as with a bothersome child; its restlessness keeps growing yet is forever the same. Everything interests me, yet nothing holds me. I attend to everything, dreaming all the while." ~ Fernando Pessoa 1888 - 1935

After “finishing" my own journey I concluded this nice phrase to ground me. "Ignorance is bliss and knowledge is power" both are equally valuable to the human experience

Fernando Pessoa is like the Shakespeare of the lusophone world In both Brazil and Portugal it's almost mandatory to learn and study him in class at some point. Despite his anonymity in life, nowadays his name is known by pretty much any lusophone in the world even if they never actually read his works.

I'm so glad you found your purpose and strive to fulfill it. You have a real gift for this and I'm so glad you decided to share it with all of us. I need to read this work by Mr. Pessoa.

"To erase everything from the slate from one day to the next, to be new with each new morning, in a perpetual revival of our emotional virginity - this, and only this, is worth being, or having, so as to be or have what we imperfectly are." These is my favourite quote from The Book of Disquiet, probably because it is the most optimistic.

Thank you for this. I say it with my heart on my hands. Thank you for doing these videos. You are kind of a salvation for these kind of obscure and pointless times we live in. ❤

I found the "exposure to the ailment is part of the treatment" to be a phrase that really resonates with me when it comes to facing down nihilism, absurdity, and general misanthropy. Great metaphor and video.

Holy shit. I've never felt the way i felt when reading Pessoa. Like he was talking for me, translating what i could never formulate into words so beautifully. It makes me feel not so alone, it relieves the burden being trapped in my head. Although our bodies and mind will never meet, truly we are kin. Thank you Fernando.

In Portugal, we learn about Fernando Pessoa and his works, but we are also taught his letters, letters he would right to his few and close friends. In one of them, he explained that he suffered from long periods of "hysteria", alternated with long periods of sadness. I remember discussing this with my teacher because it seemed to me like he had some type of mood disorder. Adding to that his childhood traumas, incredible sensitivety to reality and struggles with identify and who he was, and considering that at the time in Portugal mental health wasn't really a subject, it doesn’t come to me as much of a surprise that he drank himself to death. He was as brilliant as he was tormented by a spirit that was never his own. My class was very interested in learning about him and we really enjoyed his work, despite his tragic life, because he had an unic hability to talk about the self, its lonelyness, and the journey to get to it and that we all have many people inside of us despite it all being contained in something that at first glance appears to be just one unit, one identity. Personally, I believe that because he a mood disorder, unlike most people, he would never be able to feel that, because the part of him that would sprout the next day did not depend on him. Nowadays, we could have told him that it wasn't his fault that he felt so lost in himself. That it is just how some mood disorders worked. Most likely, he had bipolar disorder. Quite sad, but either way we love his work.

The paradox of Self-awareness is that we aware our future, but we can’t change it even when it happens

The paradox of working for a living, and/or living to work is so true. As time goes by, your outlook on life leans towards one or the other, learning neither really brings true happiness.

As a portuguese, I thank you for spreading information about one of the most fascinating authors that htis country has ever seen. Along with Camões, Eça de Queirós, and so many other, Fernando Pessoa may be known for centuries to come.

"From small misunderstandings of reality we carve out beliefs and hopes and live off the crusts of bread we call cakes, like poor children playing happiness." - Fernando Pessoa

Pessoa is a genius. Super underrated, one of the best poets/philosophers of the 20th century. The Book of Disquiet is my favorite book ever. I felt like I had gained 15 points of IQ after I finished it, it's amazing

I’m too self aware. I’m always alone even around people. I don’t know what’s wrong with me.

I cannot believe there were people who thought this far a century ago as well! I'm comforted by that fact but also saddened that this is going to keep happening until the existence of life. Now I'm writing this comment here and if by chance youtube still exists a century later(which I doubt it will), a similar thinker who's come at a standstill in their life would be reading this and feeling relieved that us, a century ago's people, think the same way as them.

i’m portuguese and seeing this topic discussed in a foreign channel really surprises me-

*"The world is often unkind to new talent, new creations, the new needs friends...Not everyone can become a great artist, but a great artist can come from anywhere”* -Ratatouille

"I am the nothing around which all this spins. "

I've never read an author I found so relatable. I find comfort and even some sort of mirror to my own writing (only a more well articulated version) in Pessoa's Book of Disquiet. Thank you Persuit of Wonder for leading me to this book :D

Honestly it's very comforting to know that others have come to the same thoughts I have.

I didn’t realize until pretty recently that most people don’t keep themselves awake at night and torture themselves during slow hours at work wondering endless about some of these ideas, I genuinely always thought of myself as a very average person I didn’t know just how much extra time I was spending being this much in my own head comparatively

Being selfaware about the issues or problems to fix something but not following through, AND knowing why your not following through due to the subconscious history you've developed for said issue is another kind of endless dive into one's mind.

Part of the paradox of self awareness is being immersed in a world of distraction, detachment, and demand to ignore your reality. It’s hard to have a conversation that sparks any emotion when the entire exchange is diluted to keep up with the social experience others demand. You learn not to share your knowledge because it only complicates your reality. So it simmers inside you. Maybe it appears in a journal here and there. Sometimes you’ll hand someone a poem or a piece of art. Excited as others are to see you and your creations, you have to pretend you’re not insulted by ignorance; the way people overlook the pain that caused art to be formed in the first place.

As a Portuguese, this is great to see, he was way ahead of it's time, sadly we are enforced to study him while we aren't ready, we kind of understand and some of us did like it, but it's when you grow up that you get to the real meaning and understand more of what's going one, because some of his writings can be understood in different ways, things aren't always objective. Amazing video, thank you!

"Viver não é necessário. Necessário é criar" ("Living is not necessary. It is necessary to create") This quote by Fernando Pessoa has been with me since middle school. As a Designer myself i can't imagine nothing more precious.

Beautiful, and eloquent. Absolute poetry. Well done.

this brought tears to my eyes. i've never thought i could relate to a man so much just like Fernando. might buy his book someday. really enjoyed this great video.

I got goosebumps reading fractions of his writings. It's so like my style of writing and thinking, convincing me that we are all connected beyond places, times and physical contacts. That tells us that everything is energy and those of same mindsets would express themselves in similar vibrations even when they never met each other and live in different centuries. How amazing.

Some of Pessoa's quotes have had a great effect on me for life. The one that stood the most with me is: "Freedom is the possibility of isolation. If you can't live alone, you were born a slave."

My friend what you're experiencing is not a problem but rather a quest which every human being is trying to pursue in different ways. Some seek fulfillment through material means while some do so by seeking the unknown. Feel for those who live in ignorance but eventually they will come down the same path because running in circles will tire one out some time. I have been living in ignorance for a long time, yes this quest is full of anxiety and confusions but this has opened doors for me to see and experience what life is in its fullness. Very small things bring biiiig smile in my face and problems I considered bigger than my life are no more a concern for me. I wish everyone good luck in this journey, hope this quest brings peace and harmony from within.

Fernando Pessoa, one of the most amazing complex poet ever 💙

thank you for mentioning portuguese literature in your channel, it rarely gets covered, but as a Portuguese I think it is worth people's time, really, thank you ❤️

“Freedom is the possibility of isolation. You are free if you can withdraw from people, not having to seek them out for the sake of money, company, love, glory or curiosity, none of which can thrive in silence and solitude. If you can't live alone, you were born a slave. You may have all the splendours of the mind and the soul, in which case you're a noble slave, or an intelligent servant, but you're not free. And you can't hold this up as your own tragedy, for your birth is a tragedy of Fate alone. Hapless you are, however, if life itself so oppresses you that you're forced to become a slave. Hapless you are if, having been born free, with the capacity to be isolated and self-sufficient, poverty should force you to live with others.” ― Fernando Pessoa, The Book of Disquiet

Wow man that is crazy. Never heard or saw anything of this until just now. Mind blowing. Thanks for sharing this. Enlightening in so many ways. RIP Fernando!

Truly a paradox but really a matter of perspective. In the same way that there is no direct “point” to life meaning it is meaningless, life being meaningless therefore means you can provide it any meaning you want. I really liked the point of how he contradicts himself by writing about how his efforts offer no reward and he has no purpose in life, but in a way he found his own purpose and meaning

Its heartbreaking to see how underrated Pessoa is. Everyone should give his 'Book of Disquiet' a read, at least once. You'll thank him for eternity.

I read It in French. I'm French. My favorite book ever "Le livre de l'intranquilité" While I'm writing this comment, I have the book on hands and I like to read It again and again because It is the mirror of my soul.

read this book last year, the amount of times I could relate to this person's written thoughts was unsettling, and at time hard to accept. It helped me to stop taking life too seriously, and come to terms with some aspect of my own ego, would recomment.

this video is magical, i always come back whenever i feel outcasted, stressed and pathless

Never before have I felt like an author's words connected to me on such a deep, internal level. Like his words have helped to breathe life into my own thoughts and feelings. I struggle on a near daily basis contemplating life and death and the world around me, as well as humanity and the universe at large. My own shortcoming has been struggling to put these thoughts and feelings to words. But hearing of the story of Pessoa through you makes me feel like I'm not alone in the world. It makes me feel like there have been, are, and always will be others who I can share a kindred spirit with, so to speak. Thank you for bringing this man's story to my attention. And thank you, Fernando Pessoa, for finding the wisdom, courage and strength to leave your mark on the world.

When I was in junior high, I bought « The Book of Disquiet » by Fernando Pessoa after watching a Vsauce video. I barely read it or understood it at the time but now time has come full circle-having this video recommended to me and remembering that I have that book sitting on my shelf. Life is truly full of wonders.

I’ve had to watch this video 5 times over and there’s still new parts I hear each time, great vid