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Rainer Maria Rilke

Rainer Maria Rilke Quotes

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Famous Rainer Maria Rilke Quotes

“My loving friend, you see, my life was never given a foundation, no one was able to imagine what it would want to become. In Venice there stands the so-called Ca del Duca, a princely foundation, on which later the most wretched tenement came to be built. With me it's the opposite: the beautiful arched elevations of my spirit rest on the most tentative beginning; a wooden scaffolding, a few boards....Is that why I feel inhibited in raising the nave, the tower to which the weight of the great bells is to be hoisted (by angels, who else could do it)?”

WantFeelsAbleBeautifulSpiritGivenImagineAngelBuiltOppositesWeightFoundationBoardsBellsTowersWretchedVeniceElevationScaffoldingTenementsLoving Friends
Author:Rainer Maria Rilke
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“At no other time (than autumn) does the earth let itself be inhaled in one smell, the ripe earth; in a smell that is in no way inferior to the smell of the sea, bitter where it borders on taste, and more honeysweet where you feel it touching the first sounds. Containing depth within itself, darkness, something of the grave almost.”

WayFeelsFirstsDoeEarthSoundDarknessSeaTasteDepthSmellGravesBitterBordersAutumnTouchingInferiorsRipeContainingFall AutumnFall SeasonAutumn Days
Author:Rainer Maria Rilke
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“Verses are not, as people think, feelings (those one has early enough) -- they are experiences. For the sake of a verse one must see many cities, men, and things, one must know the animals feel how birds fly, and know the gesture with which the little flowers open in the morning.”

PeopleThinkingKnowsMenFeelsLittlesEnoughFeelingsAnimalCitiesMorningFlowerBirdSakeGesturesVerses
Book:Rilke on Love and Other Difficulties: Translations and Considerations
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“Extinguish my eyes, I'll go on seeing you. Seal my ears, I'll go on hearing you. And without feet I can make my way to you, without a mouth I can swear your name. Break off my arms, I'll take hold of you with my heart as with a hand. Stop my heart, and my brain will start to beat. And if you consume my brain with fire, I'll feel you burn in every drop of my blood.”

IfsWayFeelsHeartI CanHandsEyeNamesBrainBreakFireSeeingBloodFeetArmsGoes OnMy HeartBeatsMouthsEarsHearingMy WaySwearSealsBreak Off
Author:Rainer Maria Rilke
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“Quiet friend who has come so far, feel how your breathing makes more space around you. Let this darkness be a bell tower and you the bell. As you ring, what batters you becomes your strength. Move back and forth into the change. What is it like, such intensity of pain? If the drink is bitter, turn yourself to wine. In this uncontainable night, be the mystery at the crossroads of your senses, the meaning discovered there. And if the world has ceased to hear you, say to the silent earth: I flow. To the rushing water, speak: I am.”

IfsWorldFeelsEarthPainMovingNightTurnsSpeakWaterSpaceDarknessMysteryDrinkQuietFlowWineSilentRingsSensesBitterBreathingIntensityBellsTowersBack And ForthRushingCrossroadsRushing Water
Book:In Praise of Mortality: Selections from Rainer Maria Rilke's Duino Elegies and Sonnets to Orpheus
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“You see, I want a lot. Perhaps I want everything the darkness that comes with every infinite fall and the shivering blaze of every step up. So many live on and want nothing And are raised to the rank of prince By the slippery ease of their light judgments But what you love to see are faces that do work and feel thirst. You love most of all those who need you as they need a crowbar or a hoe. You have not grown old, and it is not too late To dive into your increasing depths where life calmly gives out its own secret.”

WantNeedsGivingFeelsLightFacesFallSecretStepsDarknessJudgmentLateInfiniteRaisedDepthEaseToo LateThirstNeed YouWhat You LoveEvery StepStep UpSlipperyHoe
Book:Selected poems
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“It is possible I am pushing through solid rock, like the vein of ore encased, alone. I am such a long way in I can see no way through and no space. Everything is close to my face and everything close to my face is stone. I don't have much knowledge yet in grief, so this darkness makes me feel small. You, be the Master; Make yourself fierce; break in. And then your great transforming will happen to me And my great grief cry will happen to you.”

WayFeelsLongI CanHappensFacesSpaceGriefBreakDarknessStruggleRocksCryMastersStonesPushingFierceVeinsLong WayTransformingLife StrugglePushing Through
Author:Rainer Maria Rilke
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“You who let yourselves feel: enter the breathing That is more than your own. Let it brush your cheeks As it divides and rejoins behind you. The trees you planted in childhood have grown Too heavy. You cannot bring them along. Give yourselves to the air, to what you cannot hold.”

GivingFeelsBehindsAirTreeChildhoodHeavyBreathingDividesCheeksBrushesBehind You
Book:In Praise of Mortality: Selections from Rainer Maria Rilke's Duino Elegies and Sonnets to Orpheus
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“My eyes already touch the sunny hill. Going far ahead of the road I have begun. So we are grasped by what we cannot grasp; it has inner light, even from a distance- and charges us, even if we do not reach it, into something else, which, hardly sensing it, we already are; a gesture waves us on answering our own wave... but what we feel is the wind in our faces.”

IfsFeelsLightEyeFacesWindWalkingDistanceWaveHillsGesturesSunnyInner LightSensing
Author:Rainer Maria Rilke
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