As people used to be wrong about the motion of the sun, so they are still wrong about the motion of the future. The future stands still, it is we who move in infinite space.
Interpretation
The future is fixed and unchanging; it is our perceptions and actions that create the experience of time.
Rainer Maria Rilke's quote reflects on the nature of time and existence, suggesting that just as people historically misunderstood the sun's movements, they similarly misunderstand the concept of the future. It emphasizes that the future itself does not change; rather, it is our movement and development within reality that give the illusion of time passing. This perspective encourages reflection on how our actions shape our experiences and understanding of time.
In practice
In a speech about overcoming fears, this quote can illustrate how our perception shapes our reality.
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
You have freedom when you're easy in your harness.
You said 'God is cruel' the way a person who's lived his whole life on Tahiti might say 'Snow is cold'. You knew, but you didn't understand." He stepped close to David and put his palms on the boy's cold cheeks. "Do you know how cruel your God can be, David. How fantastically cruel?
If we divine a discrepancy between a man's words and his character, the whole impression of him becomes broken and painful; he revolts the imagination by his lack of unity, and even the good in him is hardly accepted.
The reason death sticks so closely to life isn’t biological necessity – it’s envy.
The world is filled with people who are no longer needed -- and who try to make slaves of all of us -- and they have their music and we have ours.
Humans are just a very, very small part of the panoply of life, and it is arguable that in a certain sense, humans have emancipated themselves from Darwinian selection.
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