I am learning to see. I don't know why it is, but everything enters me more deeply and doesn't stop where it once used to. I have an interior that I never knew of... What's the use of telling someone that I am changing? If I'm changing, I am no longer who I was; and if I am something else, it's obvious that I have no acquaintances. And I can't possibly write to strangers.
Interpretation
The quote reflects the profound internal transformation and deepening self-awareness that comes with personal growth.
Rainer Maria Rilke's quote expresses an introspective journey of self-discovery and transformation. He articulates a process of learning to perceive the world and oneself in a deeper way, suggesting that as he changes, he feels increasingly disconnected from his past self and the relationships he once held. This sense of change complicates communication with others, as he feels that he can no longer relate to those who knew him before this profound shift within him.
In practice
In a discussion about personal development, one might say, 'As Rainer Maria Rilke noted, 'I am learning to see.' This really speaks to how we evolve over time.
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
Now see that noble and most sovereign reason, Like sweet bells jangled, out of tune and harsh.
Be noble minded! Our own heart, and not other men's opinions of us, forms our true honor.
The real hell of life is that everyone has his reasons.
This is what language does: organize the world into manageable, and in some sense artificial, units that can then be inhabited and manipulated.
Once the inner connection is grasped, all theoretical belief in the permanent necessity of existing conditions collapses before their collapse in practice -- Letter to Ludwig Kugelmann (July 11, 1868)
To demand that a person pee in a cup whenever you wish him to, without a documented reason to suspect that he has been using an illegal drug, is intolerable in our republic. You are saying to him, "I wonder if you are not behaving in a way that I approve of. Convince me that you indeed are. Outrageous. Intolerable.
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