Saturday, September 09, 2006

quote

Once the realization is accepted that even between the closest human beings there exists an infinite distance between them, and once two people succeed in loving that distance, a wonderful living side by side can emerge, in which each learns to see the other whole, without defect, and against a wide sky.

Ranier Maria Rilke
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4 comments:

Counterintuitive said...

loving the distance--I like that. Seems to be one way of being aware and critical but not cynical.

This is one of my favorite Rilke quotes, one that seems to be getting at a similar issue--if we live questions we mimgh be able to love that distance:

“Be patient toward all that is unsolved in your heart and try to love the questions themselves. Do not now seek the answers, which cannot be given you because you would not be able to live them. And the point is to live everything. Live the questions”

8:58 AM
shane said...

Hey Ron. Yeah, I like that quote, too. Rilke's got lots of gems. He makes me wish I could read German.

6:09 PM
Lisa said...

I know, and like, this quote as well. It's nice to see an entry on your blog. (That second sentence is in iambic pentameter.)

10:01 AM
shane said...

Hi Lisa. Yeah, my blogging time has been cut into by work and stuff. It's starting to feel like I have a real job or something. (Now how could I say that in iambic pentameter?)

Here are some other Rilke quotes I like:

Perhaps all the dragons of our lives are princesses [or princes] who are only waiting to see us once beautiful and brave.

Beauty is nothing but the beginning of terror.

Let life happen to you. Believe me: life is in the right, always.

If your daily life seems poor, do not blame it; blame yourself that you are not poet enough to call forth its riches; for the Creator, there is no poverty.

And in that same vein, a quote by Nietzsche:

When someone knows the why of his existence, he can bear almost any how.

9:11 AM

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