Rainer Maria Rilke > Quotes

“Ultimately nobody can help anyone else in life; one has this recurring experience in every conflict and confusion: that one is alone. (Letters on Life)”
― Rainer Maria Rilke

“Mümkün müdür tüm gerçeklikler onlar için bir anlam ifade etmesin; mümkün müdür hayatları boş odalardaki saatler gibi hiçbirşeye bağlanmadan geçsin?”
― Rainer Maria Rilke, The Notebooks of Malte Laurids Brigge

“Mama can smell something,’ said Viera Schulin behind him. ‘We always have to be quiet. She smells with her ears.’ She herself stood attentively with her eyebrows raised, all nose.”
― Rainer Maria Rilke, The Notebooks of Malte Laurids Brigge

“They wished to flower, and flowering is being beautiful: but we wish to ripen, and that means being dark and taking pains.”
― Rainer Maria Rilke

“One ought to turn the most extreme possibility inside oneself into the measure for one’s life, for our life is vast and can accommodate as much future as we are able to carry.”
― Rainer Maria Rilke

“The fear of the unexplainable not only impoverished the existence of the individual, but also caused the relationship of one person to another to be limited. It is as though fear has caused something to be lifted out of the riverbed of limitless possibilities to a fallow stretch of shore where nothing happens. For it is not inertia alone that causes the unspeakably monotonous and unrenewed human condition to repeat itself again and again. It is the aversion to anything new, any unpredictable experience, which is believed to be untenable.”
― Rainer Maria Rilke, Letters to a Young Poet

“Oh arrive and leave. You were still half a child,
Completing a dancing pose for but a moment,
The pure form of a star constellation, which is
One of the ways in which we overcome the mindless random order

Of Nature, also just for a moment. For it was only when Orpheus sang
That Nature awoke and heard, was quickened in alertness.
Though far away in time, this stirred you. And you were somewhat
Surprised that a tree considered so slowly and hesitated

To join with you in hearing it.
You sensed the very place where the lyre
Raised itself aloft -; the mid-point which has never been heard.

For you ventured your beautiful steps
And you hoped, one day in holy celebration
To alter the course and countenance of your friend.
(Her friend is himself.)”
― Rainer Maria Rilke, Sonnets to Orpheus

“To be an artist means not to compute or count; it means to ripen as the tree, which does not force its sap, but stands unshaken in the storms of spring with no fear that summer might not follow.”
― Rainer Maria Rilke, Letters to a Young Poet

“daß man nicht das Recht hatte, ein Buch aufzuschlagen, wenn man sich nicht verpflichtete, alle zu lesen”
― Rainer Maria Rilke

“Tai, ką aš galiu atkurti iš savo vaikiškos atminties, visai nėra pastatas; manyje jis visas suskaidytas į dalis - čia vienas kambarys, ten - kitas, o štai čia - koridoriaus atkarpa, kuri nejungia tų dviejų kambarių, bet egzistuoja pati savaime, kaip fragmentas. Taip manyje viskas pabira: kambariai, laiptai, ceremoningai besileidžiantys žemyn, ir kiti laipteliai - ankšti, įviji: jų tamsoje vaikščiodavai, kaip vaikšto kraujas gyslomis; bokšto kambarėliai, aukštai kabantys balkonai, netikėtai atsiveriančios altanos, į kurias buvai įstumiamas pro mažutes duris. Visai tai dar tebėra ir visuomet bus manyje. Atrodo, lyg to namo paveikslas būtų nukritęs į mane iš nepaprasto aukščio ir sudužęs mano gelmėse.”
― Rainer Maria Rilke, The Notebooks of Malte Laurids Brigge

“Заради един-едничък стих трябва да видиш много градове, хора и неща, трябва да познаваш животните, да чувстваш как летят птиците и да различаваш взора, с който сутрин се разтварят лицата на малките цветя. Трябва да умееш да си спомняш за пътища през непознати местности, за неочаквани срещи и раздели, които дълго си виждал да идват насреща ти - за дните на детството, които все още не познаваш, за родителите, които е трябвало да наскърбиш, когато са ти доставяли радост, а ти не си я разбирал (била е радост за някого другиго...), за детските болести, които започват така странно, с толкова много дълбоки и тежки превращения, за дни в спокойни, притихнали стаи и за някои сутрини край морето, за морето изобщо, за всички морета, за нощите по време на пътуване, които отшумяват високо горе и отлитат със звездите си - а дори ако имаш право да мислиш за всичко това, то все още няма да е достатъчно. Трябва да имаш спомени за много любовни нощи, от които нито една не прилича на другата, за стонове на родилки и за олекнали, бели и спящи майки, току-що дарили живот, чиито тела отново се затварят. Но трябва да си бил и при умиращи, да си стоял край мъртъвци в някоя стая с отворен прозорец и прииждащи на тласъци шумове. Ала дори и да имаш спомени, това все още не е достатъчно. трябва да умееш да ги забравяш, когато са много, и да имаш огромното търпение да чакаш завръщането им. Защото самите спомени все още не са онова, което е необходимо. Едва когато станат наша кръв, поглед и лик, безименни и неотличими от нас самите, едва тогава може да се случи тъй, щото в някой неуловим миг първата дума от един стих да се възправи в тяхното гъмжило и да се измъкне от тях.
"Записките на Малте Лауридс Бриге”
― Rilke, Rainer Maria

“All strength we give away comes over us again, experienced and altered. Thus it is in prayer. And what is there, truly done, that is not prayer?”
― Rainer Maria Rilke, Letters to a Young Poet

“Da schlug er jäh
die Hände vors Gesicht, wie er so kniete,
um nichts zu sehen mehr nach diesem Lächeln.”
― Rilke, Rainer Maria

“have patience with everything that is unsolved in your heart and try to cherish the questions themselves... Do not search now for the answers which cannot be given you because you could not live them... Live the questions now. Perhaps you will then gradually, without noticing it, one distant day live right into the answer.”
― Rainer Maria Rilke, Letters to a Young Poet

“Uma obra de arte é boa quando surge de uma necessidade. É no modo como ela se origina que se encontra seu valor, não há nenhum outro critério. Por isso, prezado senhor, eu não saberia dar nenhum conselho senão este: voltar-se para si mesmo e sondar as profundezas de onde vem a sua vida; nessa fonte o senhor encontrará a resposta para a questão de saber se precisa criar. Aceite-a como ela for, sem interpretá-la. Talvez ela revele que o senhor é chamado a ser um artista.”
― Rainer Maria Rilke, Letters to a Young Poet

“Het heeft wellicht geen enkele zin dat ik nu in detail op uw woorden inga; want wat ik zou kunnen zeggen over uw neiging tot wankelmoedigheid of over uw onvermogen om uw uiterlijk en innerlijk leven met elkaar in harmonie te brengen, of over wat u verder nog allemaal dwars zit, het komt altijd neer op wat ik al heb gezegd: altijd op de wens dat u voldoende geduld zult kunnen opbrengen om u erdoorheen te slaan, en voldoende eenvoud om te geloven; de wens dat u steeds meer vertrouwd zult raken met datgene wat moeilijk is, en met uw eenzaamheid te midden van de anderen. En laat het leven verder maar over u komen. Geloof mij: het leven heeft gelijk: in elk geval.
Furuborg, Jonsered, Zweden, 4 november 1904”
― Rainer Maria Rilke, Letters to a Young Poet

“I believe that love remains so strong and powerful in your memory.”
― Rainer Maria Rilke, Letters to a Young Poet

“Remember, when you fear what might befall you, that Life has not abandoned you, that it is holding you, and out of its web you cannot fall - why would you want to exclude from your existence any unrest, any pain, any heaviness?”
― Rainer Maria Rilke, Letters to a Young Poet

“And we continually outrun their messengers, for long now too slow for us.
We solely depend on one another now, but without knowing one another.
Our paths no longer trace delicate meanders,

But are plotted by degrees.”
― Rainer Maria Rilke, Sonnets to Orpheus

“Ultimately nobody can help anyone else in life; one has this recurring experience in every conflict and confusion: that one is alone. This is not as bad as it may appear at first glance; it is also the best thing about life that everyone contains everything within himself: his fate, his future, his entire scope and world.”
― Rainer Maria Rilke, The Poet's Guide to Life: The Wisdom of Rilke

“Perhaps you do carry within yourself the possibility forming and creating, as a particularly happy and pure way of living.”
― Rainer Maria Rilke, Letters to a Young Poet

“There the tree rises. Oh pure surpassing!
Oh Orpheus sings! Oh great tree of sound!
And all is silent, And from this silence arise
New beginnings, intimations, changings.

From the stillness animals throng, out of the clear
Snapping forest of lair and nest;
And thus they are stealthy not from cunning
Not from fear

But to hear. And in their hearts the howling, the cry,
The stag-call seem too little. And where before
Was but the rudest shelter to receive these,

A refuge fashioned out of darkest longing
Entered, tremulo, the doorpost aquiver, -
There You have fashioned them a temple for their hearing.”
― Rainer Maria Rilke, Sonnets to Orpheus

“Let everything happen to you / Beauty and terror / Just keep going / No feeling is final.”
― Rilke Rainer Maria

“Ich habe viele Brüder in Sutanen im Süden, wo in Klöstern Lorbeer steht. Ich weiß, wie menschlich sie Madonnen planen, und träume oft von jungen Tizianen, durch die der Gott in Gluten geht.”
― Rainer Maria Rilke, Das Stunden-Buch

“good quotes best to me as well”
― Rainer Maria Rilke

“Así es que no debe asustarse, querido Señor Kappus, si una tristeza se yergue frente a usted más grande que cualquiera que haya visto en el pasado; o si una inquietud como la luz y las sombras de nubes, cae sobre sus manos y sobre todo lo que haga. Debe darse cuenta de que algo le está ocurriendo, que la vida no lo ha olvidado, que lo tiene en sus manos y no lo dejará caer. ¿Por qué quiere dejar fuera de su vida cualquier preocupación, desdicha o depresión, sin saber, después de todo, cuál es el trabajo que estas condiciones están ejerciendo dentro de usted? ¿Por qué desea oprimirse con preguntas sobre el origen y destino de todo esto? Ya sabe usted, después de todo, que se encuentra en medio de transiciones, y que su deseo no es otro más que cambiar.”
― Rainer Maria Rilke, Cartas a un Joven Poeta

“In this there is no measuring with time, a year doesn’t matter, and ten years are nothing. Being an artist means: not numbering and counting, but ripening like a tree, which doesn’t force its sap, and stands
confidently in the storms of spring, not afraid that
afterward summer may not come. It does come. But
it comes only to those who are patient, who are there
as if eternity lay before them, so unconcernedly silent
and vast. I learn it every day of my life, learn it with
pain I am grateful for: patience is everything!”
― Rainer Maria Rilke, Letters to a Young Poet

“I believe in all that has never been spoken. I want to free what waits within m so that what no one has dared to wish for may for once spring clear without my contriving.”
― Rainer Maria Rilke, The Book of Hours

“I believe that all aesthetic observation that is not immediate accomplishment will be impossible from now on, — basically impossible, for example, to 'admire pictures' in a church, […] You would not believe at all,[…] how different, how different the world has become, the point is to understand that. Whoever thinks he can live from now on as he was 'accustomed' to live, will find himself continually facing the sheerest repetition, the bare once-again and its whole desperate unfruitfulness.”
― Ranier Maria Rilke

“And you only need to be understanding with regard to the replies, which often, maybe, will leave you with empty hands; for at bottom, and particularly in the deepest and most important things, we are unutterably alone, and for one person to be able to advise, let alone help, another, a great deal must come about, a great deal must come right, a whole constellation of things must concur for it to be possible at all.”
― Rainer Maria Rilke, Letters to a Young Poet