Favorite Quotations Rainer Maria Rilke Ahead of All Parting

"Go into yourself. Find out the reason that commands you to write; see whether it has spread its roots into the depth of your heart; confess to yourself whether you would have to die if you were forbidden to write." ~ Rainer Maria Rilke, Letters to a Young Poet

rilke

Then, as if no one had ever tried before, try and say what you see and feel and love and lose. ~ Letters to a Young Poet

I never read anything concerning my work. I feel that criticism is a letter to the public which the author, since it is not directed to him, does not have to open and read.

Why do you want to shut out of your life any uneasiness, any misery, any depression, since after all you don't know what work these conditions are doing inside you?

Once the realization is accepted that even between the closest human beings infinite distances continue to exist, a wonderful living side by side can grow up.

Be patient toward all that is unresolved in your heart and try to love the questions themselves.

Destiny is only the dense residue of childhood. ~ 7th Elegy

Work of sight it done. Now do heart work on the pictures within you.

We live our lives, for ever taking leave. ~ Duino Elegies

We need, in love, to practice only this:/letting each other go. For holding on/comes easily; we do not need to learn it.

Beauty is as close to terror as we can well endure. ~ 2nd Elegy

This is the miracle that happens every time to those who really love; the more they give, the more they possess.