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I hold this to be the highest task for a bond between two people: that each protects the solitude of the other.
Rainer Maria Rilke
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Interpretation

What this quote means

Each person in a relationship should respect and protect the other's individuality and personal space.

This quote emphasizes the importance of individuality within a relationship, suggesting that true intimacy involves allowing each person the freedom to be themselves. By protecting each other's solitude, partners can foster a deeper connection based on mutual respect and understanding, rather than dependency or suffocation.

Themes

RelationshipSolitudeIndividualityRespectConnection

In practice

Example use cases

Using this quote in a wedding speech to highlight the importance of understanding and individuality in marriage.

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