Isn't it time that these most ancient sorrows of ours grew fruitful? Time that we tenderly loosed ourselves from the loved one, and, unsteadily, survived: the way the arrow, suddenly all vector, survives the string to be more than itself. For abiding is nowhere.
Interpretation
This quote reflects on the transformation that comes from loss and separation, encouraging growth beyond grief.
Rainer Maria Rilke contemplates the idea of sorrow and loss as ancient human experiences that, while painful, can lead to personal growth and new understandings. He suggests that by releasing our attachments to those we love, we can emerge stronger and transformed, similar to an arrow that, once released, transcends its previous state to become something greater. This metaphor emphasizes the inevitability of change and the importance of embracing the journey of survival and growth amidst grief.
In practice
In a speech about personal growth after loss, you could use this quote to illustrate resilience.
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
Our society is run by insane people for insane objectives. I think we're being run by maniacs for maniacal ends and I think I'm liable to be put away as insane for expressing that. That's what's insane about it.
If we justify war, it is because all peoples always justify the traits of which they find themselves possessed, not because war will bear an objective examination of its merits
The future doesn't exist. The only thing that exists is now and our memory of what happened in the past. But because we invented the idea of a future, we're the only animal that realized we can affect the future by what we do today.
Their sighing, canting, grace-proud faces, their three-mile prayers, and half-mile graces.
The right to life is the first human right. Abortion is killing someone that cannot defend himself.
Goodness consists not in the outward things we do, but in the inward thing we are.
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