QuoteProject
So you mustn't be frightened, dear Mr. Kappus, if a sadness rises in front of you, larger than any you have ever seen; if an anxiety - like light and cloud-shadows, moves over your hands and everything you do. You must realize that something is happening to you, that life has not forgotten you, that it holds you in the palm of its hand and will not let you fall.
Rainer Maria Rilke
ShareWTF𝕏

Interpretation

What this quote means

The quote reassures that sadness and anxiety are part of the human experience and suggests that they hold deeper significance.

Rainer Maria Rilke's quote emphasizes that facing profound sadness or anxiety is a natural part of life that should not evoke fear. Instead, it encourages an understanding that such feelings indicate active engagement in life's journey, reminding us that we are cared for and supported by the greater forces of existence, thus suggesting a sense of hope and resilience in the face of challenges.

Themes

SadnessAnxietyLifeResilienceHope

In practice

Example use cases

This quote can inspire someone going through a tough time at a support group meeting.

More from Rainer Maria Rilke

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!
Rainer Maria RilkeRead
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.
Rainer Maria RilkeRead
a good marriage is that in which each appoints the other guardian of his solitude
Rainer Maria RilkeRead
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.
Rainer Maria RilkeRead
The only journey is the one within.
Rainer Maria RilkeRead
And now we welcome the new year, full of things that have never been
Rainer Maria RilkeRead

Similar quotes

My mother was right when she said that turning pro would take away my youth.
Tiger WoodsRead
Oftentimes, even myself as I've come through my entire career from high school all the way up here, everything has been football, football, football. And then you realize that life is much bigger than this game, especially when you start thinking about life after football and what you want to leave behind.
Malcolm JenkinsRead
Hers was a memory made up of snapshorts: being dragged through the snow by a pack of wolves, first kiss tasting of oranges, saying goodbye behind a cracked windshield. A life made up of promises of what could be: the possibilities contained in a stack of college applications, the thrill of sleeping under a strange roof, the future that lay in Sam's smile. It was a life I didn't want to leave behind. It was a life I didn't want to forget I wasn't done with it yet. There was so much more to say.
Maggie StiefvaterRead
Every time I close my eyes blowing that trumpet of mine, I look right into the heart of good old New Orleans. It has given me something to live for.
Louis ArmstrongRead
Life can't defeat a writer who is in love with writing, for life itself is a writer's lover until death.
Edna FerberRead
Human life runs its course in the metamorphosis between receiving and giving.
Johann Wolfgang Von GoetheRead

A little wisdom, now and then

Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.