“His conception of the universe is, however, instinctive, not intellectual; it can't be criticized as a concept, because there’s none there, and it can't be criticized as temperament, because temper...”

“It’s the poet we love in Caeiro, not the philosopher. What we really get from these poems is a childlike sense of life, with all the direct materiality of the child’s mind, and all the vital spirit...”

“The Amorous Shepherd is a fruitless interlude, but those few poems are among the world’s greatest love poems, because they’re love poems about love, not about being poems. The poet loves because he...”

“he woman Caeiro fell in love with. I have no idea who she was, and I intend to never find out, not even out of curiosity. There are things of which the soul refuses to lose its ignorance.I’m perfec...”

“When I’m depressed, I read Caeiro — he’s my fresh air. I become very calm, content, faithful — yes, I find faith in God, and in the soul’s transcendent living smallness, after reading the poems by ...”

“Superior poets say what they really feel. Mediocre poets say what they decide to feel. Inferior poets say what they think they should feel.”

“I consider a dream like I consider a shadow, answered Caeiro, with his usual divine, unexpected promptitude. A shadow is real, but its less real than a rock. A dream is real if it werent, it would...”

“His conception of the universe is, however, instinctive, not intellectual; it can't be criticized as a concept, because theres none there, and it can't be criticized as temperament, because tempera...”

“Its the poet we love in Caeiro, not the philosopher. What we really get from these poems is a childlike sense of life, with all the direct materiality of the childs mind, and all the vital spiritua...”

“Ever have a dream so real you felt you could reach out and touch it?”

“The nearest thing we have to a defence against [the gods] (but there is no real defence) is to be very wide awake and sober and hard at work, to hear no music, never to look at earth or sky, and (a...”

“Today well lived makes every yesterday a dream of happiness and every tomorrow a vision of hope. Look well therefore to this day.”

“Everything is important. To the smallest insect, even the mouldering tree, the deepest stone in the drift.”

“Now I sense the perfume of flowers like seeing a new thing.I know they smell just as well as I know I existed.Theyre things known from the outside.But now I know with my breathing from the back of ...”

“Existence is a priceless gift and the beauties of nature are the priceless gifts of the existence!”