Stones in my path? I keep them all. One day I will build a castle.

The exact three Portuguese sentences occur in Nemo Nox’s public blog on 2 January 2003 at 12:45; this is the earliest appearance located in this run. On 31 March 2006 Nox explicitly claimed them, linked back to his original post and described their attachment to a longer text passed around as Pessoa’s. The first person to attach Pessoa’s name and the first such posting have not been established. A Público ombudsman column archived as 13 May 2007 documents a newspaper misattribution on 13 April 2007 and quotes Casa Fernando Pessoa’s director denying that the composite poem is Pessoa’s; Nox’s 2003 post independently establishes the origin of its closing three sentences. Nox’s suggestion that the other part might be Augusto Cury’s is not an established authorship claim and is not adopted here. Pessoa’s seven Portuguese/English source works were searched through the atlas check for the exact Portuguese wording, which was not found; that limited corpus search alone is not the basis for the verdict. The English wording here is Quotogeny’s own draft translation, not a sourced historical English version.

1. 2 January 2003Earliest found · credited to Nemo NoxNemo Nox publishes the three-sentence saying as a standalone blog entry, the earliest appearance found.Pedras no caminho? Eu guardo todas. Um dia vou construir um castelo.Nemo Nox, Por um Punhado de Pixels, entry of 2 January 2003, 12:45. Checked in a full-text transcription. Source
2. 31 March 2006Credited to Fernando Pessoa (reported false attribution)Nox reports that the saying has been attached to a longer text and circulated as Pessoa’s, while reaffirming his own authorship; this documents the false credit by this date, not its first occurrence.Nemo Nox, Por um Punhado de Pixels, entry of 31 March 2006, 17:32. Checked in a full-text transcription. Source
3. 13 April 2007Spread · credited to Fernando PessoaAccording to Público’s later ombudsman column, Laurinda Alves prints the composite text, including the castle ending, as Pessoa’s in “A Coragem de Pessoa”, P2, p. 4. The April item itself was not seen.Rui Araújo, “Fernando Pessoa”, Provedor do Leitor do Público (archived column, 13 May 2007). Checked on another researcher’s citation, not seen first-hand. Source
4. 13 May 2007SpreadAn ombudsman correction archived under this date discusses Nox’s authorship, prints the Casa Fernando Pessoa director’s denial of the composite attribution, and records the journalist’s acknowledgement of the mistake.Rui Araújo, “Fernando Pessoa”, Provedor do Leitor do Público (archived column, 13 May 2007). Checked in a full-text transcription. Source

A motivational saying circulates under Pessoa’s name, sometimes as the ending of a longer composite text about happiness. The three-sentence Portuguese original is a standalone post in Brazilian blogger Nemo Nox’s archive on 2 January 2003. In March 2006 he explained that it had spread with Pessoa’s signature.

Treat obstacles as material from which something valuable can eventually be built.

Not Pessoa’s words. Attribute the Portuguese saying to Nemo Nox; the longer composite poem has a separate, incompletely established textual history.

• The form on posters and social mediaPedras no caminho? Eu guardo todas. Um dia vou construir um castelo. The original Portuguese wording, copied from Nox’s 2 January 2003 post. It circulates under Pessoa’s name, as documented by Nox in 2006 and by the sources in refs; this link establishes the wording and its real author, not an instance of Pessoa attribution. Where it was seen

Life, Hope, Wisdom

• The greater the difficulty, the more glory in surmounting it. Skilful pilots gain their reputation from storms and tempests. (misattributed) Epictetus
• The greater the difficulty, the more glory in surmounting it. Skillful pilots gain their reputation from storms and tempests. (misattributed) Epicurus
• Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn’t do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover. (misattributed) Mark Twain
• Trust thyself: every heart vibrates to that iron string. Ralph Waldo Emerson
• It’s not the size of the dog in the fight, it’s the size of the fight in the dog. (misattributed) Mark Twain

• pt.wikiquote.org/wiki/Fernando_Pessoa
• culturagenial.com/frase-pedras-no-caminho-guardo-todas-um-dia-vou-construir-um-castelo
• static.publico.pt/homepage/provedor/04.ruiAraujo/textos/2007.05.13.fernandoPessoa.asp
• nemonox.com/ppp/archives/2006_03.html#008119

“Stones in my path? I keep them all. One day I will build a castle.” Attributed to Fernando Pessoa. No. Nemo Nox wrote it, not Pessoa. Quotogeny, https://quotogeny.com/q/stones-in-my-path-i-keep-them-all/ (checked 25 October 2026).

Have a different wording, or a source we missed? Check it or submit it.

Do you hold the rights to anything on this page? Tell us.