A Quote by Fernando Pessoa

The perfect man of pagans was the perfection of the man there is; the perfect man of christians, the perfection of the man there isn't; the buddhists' perfect man, the perfection of not existing a man.

Fernando Pessoa

Quote Topics

Christians Existing He Man Man Perfect Perfect Man Perfection

Quote Author

Fernando Pessoa
Portuguese - Author
June 13, 1888 - November 30, 1935

Nature attains perfection, but man never does. There is a perfect ant, a perfect bee, but man is perpetually unfinished. He is both an unfinished animal and an unfinished man. It is this incurable unfinishedness which sets man apart from other living things. For, in the attempt to finish himself, man becomes a creator. Moreover, the incurable unfinishedness keeps man perpetually immature, perpetually capable of learning and growing.

Eric Hoffer

A good marriage does not require a perfect man or a perfect woman. It only requires a man and a woman committed to strive together toward perfection.

Dallin H. Oaks

I met another man who considered himself perfect, but he was thoroughly mad; and I do not believe that any of the pretenders to perfection are better than good maniacs... for while a man has got a spark of reason left in him, he cannot, unless he is the most impudent of impostors, talk about being perfect.

Charles Spurgeon

Work is the true elixir of life. The busiest man is the happiest man. Excellence in any art or profession is attained only by hard and persistent work. Never believe that you are perfect. When a man imagines, even after years of striving, that he has attained perfection, his decline begins.

Theodore Martin

... one flaw throws the loveliness of [everything else] into focus. I remember reading that Shakers deliberately introduced a mistake into the things they made, to show that man shouldn't aspire to the perfection of God. Flawed can be more perfect than perfection.

Gretchen Rubin

Everyone is comparing lives on social media and wants the perfect body, perfect image, perfect outfit, perfect life - we're striving for this perfection, and it's so unhealthy because there's no such thing as perfection.

Emily Atack

Infinite perfection is in every man, though unmanifested. Every man has in him the potentiality of attaining to perfect saintliness, Rishihood, or to the most exalted position of an Avatâra, or to the greatness of a hero in material discoveries.

Swami Vivekananda

The perfection of the effect demonstrates the perfection of the cause, for a greater power brings about a more perfect effect. But God is the most perfect agent. Therefore, things created by Him obtain perfection from Him. So, to detract from the perfection of creatures is to detract from the perfection of divine power.

Thomas Aquinas

Fans see you on hoardings, posters, on the screen with perfect makeup, perfect hair, perfect clothes etc. Perfection is such a hunger! Especially when it comes to actors and stars, they always expect perfection.

Koena Mitra

How can we say nobody's perfect if there is no perfect to compare to? Perfection implies that there really is a right and wrong way to be. And what type of perfection is the best type? Moral perfection? Aesthetic? Physiological? Mental?

A.S. King

A perfect human being: Man in search of his ideal of perfection. Nothing less.

Pir Vilayat Khan

Each man is perfect by his nature; prophets have manifested this perfection, but it is potential in us.

Swami Vivekananda

Never shall a man attain to the perfect love of God who has not loved to perfection some creature in this world.

Marguerite de Navarre

Our Lord humbled without humiliation His lofty station which yet could not be humbled, and condescends to His servants, with a condescension ineffable and incomprehensible. God being perfect becomes perfect man, and brings to perfection the newest of all new things (cf. Eccles 1:10), the only new thing under the sun, through which the boundless might of God is manifested. For what greater thing is there than that God should become man?