Again and again in history some people wake up. They have no ground in the crowd and move to broader deeper laws. They carry strange customs with them and demand room for bold and audacious action. The future speaks ruthlessly through them. They change the world.
Interpretation
This quote speaks about individuals who break away from the norm and bring transformative changes to society.
Rainer Maria Rilke emphasizes the significance of individuals who stand out from the crowd and challenge existing conventions. These 'woken' individuals embrace unconventional beliefs and summon courage to act boldly, thus becoming agents of change in the world. Their actions, driven by deeper insights and unique customs, resonate with the future, pushing humanity towards progress and transformation.
In practice
This quote can inspire activists during a rally advocating for social change.
Spring has again returned. _x000D_ _x000D_ The Earth is like a child that knows many poems._x000D_ _x000D_ Many, O so many. For the hardship_x000D_ _x000D_ of such long learning she receives the prize._x000D_ _x000D_ _x000D_ Strict was her teacher. _x000D_ _x000D_ The white in the old man's beard pleases us._x000D_ _x000D_ Now, what to call green, to call blue,_x000D_ _x000D_ we dare to ask: She knows, She knows!
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.
a good marriage is that in which each appoints the other guardian of his solitude
He 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.
The only journey is the one within.
And now we welcome the new year, full of things that have never been
To get away from one's working environment is, in a sense, to get away from one's self; and this is often the chief advantage of travel and change.
My main message is to the parents of Trayvon Martin. You know, if I had a son, he'd look like Trayvon.
A race preserves its vigor so long as it harbors a real contrast between what has been and what may be; and so long as it is nerved by the vigor to adventure beyond the safeties of the past. Without adventure civilization is in full decay.
From New Year's on the outlook brightens; good humor lost in a mood of failure returns. I resolve to stop complaining.
We Americans have a chance to become someday a nation in which all racial stocks and classes can exist in their own selfhoods, but meet on a basis of respect and equality and live together, socially, economically, and politically.
Outer changes always begin with an inner change of attitude.
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