I don’t know what understanding myself is. I don’t look inside. I don’t believe I exist behind myself.

— Alberto Caeiro

I don’t regret anything I was before because I still am. I only regret not having loved you. Put your hands in mine And let’s be quiet, surrounded by life.

— Alberto Caeiro

If I could take a bite of the whole world And feel it on my palate’d be more happy for a minute or so... But I don’t always want to be happy. Sometimes you have to be Unhappy to be natural... Not every day is sunny. When there’s been no rain for a while, you pray for it to come. So I take unhappiness with happiness Naturally, like someone who doesn’t find it strange That there are mountains and plains And that there are cliffs and grass... What you need is to be natural and Calvin happiness and in unhappiness, To feel like someone seeing, To think like someone walking, And when it’s time to die, remember the day dies, And the sunset is beautiful, and the endless night is beautiful... That’s how it is and that’s how it should be...

— Alberto Caeiro

If I die very young, hear this:I was never anything but a kid playing. I was a heathen like the sun and the water, I had the universal religion only people don’t have. I was happy because I didn’t ask for anything at all, Or tried to find anything, And I didn’t find anymore explanation Than the word explanation having no meaning at all.

— Alberto Caeiro

If I knew I was going to die tomorrow, And Spring came the day after tomorrow, I would die peacefully, because it came the day after tomorrow. If that’s its time, when else should it come? I like it that everything is real and everything is right;And I like that it would be like this even if I didn’t like it. And so, if I die now, I die peacefully Because everything is real and everything is right.

— Alberto Caeiro

If I talk about her like she’s a bandit’s because talking about her, I need to use the language of men Which gives personality to things, And imposes a name on things.

— Alberto Caeiro

If science wants to be truthful, What science is more truthful than the science of things without science? I close my eyes and the hard earth where I’m lying Has a reality so real even my back feels it. I don’t need reason — I have shoulder blades.

— Alberto Caeiro

If they want me to have mysticism, okay, I’ve got it. I’m a mystic, but only in my body, My soul is simple and doesn’t think.

— Alberto Caeiro

I love flowers for being flowers, directly. And I love trees for being trees without my thought.

— Alberto Caeiro

I’m a keeper of flocks. The flock is my thoughts And my thoughts are all sensations. I think with my eyes and with my ears And with my hands and feet And with my nose and mouth. Thinking about a flower is seeing and smelling stand eating a piece of fruit is knowing its meaning. That’s why when on a hot day feel sad from liking it so much, And I throw myself lengthwise on the grassland shut my hot eyes, And feeling my whole body lying on reality, I know the truth, and I’m happy.

— Alberto Caeiro