The ultimate, the last test and proof, the work for which all other work is but preparation.
RAINER MARIA RILKEThe ultimate, the last test and proof, the work for which all other work is but preparation.
RAINER MARIA RILKEAll emotions are pure which gather you and lift you up; that emotion is impure which seizes only one side of your being and so distorts you.
RAINER MARIA RILKEMore belongs to marriage than four legs in a bed.
RAINER MARIA RILKESurely all art is the result of one’s having been in danger, of having gone through an experience all the way to the end, where no one can go any further.
RAINER MARIA RILKEThere are so many things about which some old man ought to tell one while one is little; for when one is grown one would know them as a matter of course.
RAINER MARIA RILKEThere are quantities of human beings, but there are many more faces, for each person has several.
RAINER MARIA RILKETruly to sing, that is a different breath.
RAINER MARIA RILKEWho has not sat before his own heart’s curtain? It lifts: and the scenery is falling apart.
RAINER MARIA RILKEI want to be with those who know secret things or else alone.
RAINER MARIA RILKEThis is the miracle that happens every time to those who really love: the more they give, the more they possess.
RAINER MARIA RILKEA wonderful living side by side can grow, if they succeed in loving the distance between them which makes it possible for each to see the other whole against the sky.
RAINER MARIA RILKEHe reproduced himself with so much humble objectivity, with the unquestioning, matter of fact interest of a dog who sees himself in a mirror and thinks: there’s another dog.
RAINER MARIA RILKELove is like the measles. The older you get it, the worse the attack.
RAINER MARIA RILKEThe more strongly you cultivate this belief, the more will reality and the world go forth from it.
RAINER MARIA RILKEA person isn’t who they are during the last conversation you had with them – they’re who they’ve been throughout your whole relationship.
RAINER MARIA RILKEThe purpose of life is to be defeated by greater and greater things.
RAINER MARIA RILKE