After the Rain

"After the last of the rain had fallen from the sky and come to earth - leaving the sky clear and the earth damp and gleaming - the world below grew joyful in the cool left by the rain, and the greater clarity of life that returned with the blue of the heavens furnished each soul with its own sky, each heart with a new freshness."

-Fernando Pessoa, "The Book of Disquiet"

I picked up this book at Foyles the other day, kind of on a whim, and it turns out it is the perfect book to be reading whilst sipping gingerbread lattes in London cafes…  Highly recommended for all you who love to sit and endlessly/ fruitlessly ruminating on the meaning of life.

“If I left all this tomorrow, and discarded this suit that I wear, what else would I do?  Because I would have to do something.  And what suit would I wear?  Because I would have to wear another suit.”

“With the soul’s equivalent of a wry smile, I calmly confront the prospect that my life will consist of nothing more than being shut up forever in Rua dos Douradores, in this office, surrounded by these people.  I have enough money to buy food and drink, I have somewhere to live and enough free time to dream, write – and sleep – what more can I ask of the gods or hope for from Fate?”