Ibid., p. 9
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There's no greater tragedy than an equal intensity, in the same soul or the same man, of the intellectual sentiment and the moral sentiment. For a man to be utterly and absolutely moral, he has to be a bit stupid. For a man to be absolutely intellectual, he has to be a bit immoral.

— Fernando Pessoa

What It Means

This is a placeholder explanation generated by the low-overhead model. It interprets "There's no greater tragedy than an equal intensity, in the same soul or the same man, of the intellectual sentiment and the moral sentiment. For a man to be utterly and absolutely moral, he has to be a bit stupid. For a man to be absolutely intellectual, he has to be a bit immoral." in the context of "Ibid., p. 9" to mean that wisdom is timeless.

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Source: Wikiquote: "Fernando Pessoa" (Quotes, The Education of the Stoic: The only text left by heteronym The Baron of Teive (or Álvaro Coelho de Athayde), this work is left behind after the Baron's suicide and the burning of all his other writings. All quotations provided in English as translated by Richard Zenith.) The 'What it means' explanation text was generated by Google Gemini Flash (accessed January 18, 2026). https://gemini.google.com/app
Fernando Pessoa

About Fernando Pessoa

Fernando Pessoa (13 June 1888 – 30 November 1935) was a Portuguese poet and writer, most of whose work was published posthumously. He wrote frequently under heteronyms, alter egos with developed personalities, biographies, jobs, habits, attitudes, addresses, etc., who sometimes quoted and interacted with each other and other people.