Think... of the world you carry within you, and call this thinking whatever you want to: a remembering of your own childhood or a yearning toward a future of your own - only be attentive to what is arising within you, and place that above everything you perceive around you. What is happening in your innermost self is worthy of your entire love; somehow you must find a way to work at it.
Interpretation
The quote emphasizes the importance of self-reflection and prioritizing one's inner thoughts and feelings over external perceptions.
Rainer Maria Rilke's quote invites individuals to explore and nurture their inner selves, asserting that the thoughts and emotions we carry within us are more significant than the external world. By encouraging self-reflection and an understanding of one's own experiences—whether drawing from childhood memories or aspirations for the future—the quote highlights the necessity of devoting love and attention to our innermost being. It suggests that self-work, grounded in an honest assessment of our internal world, is essential for personal growth and fulfillment.
In practice
In a motivational speech about personal development, one might say, 'Remember Rilke's words about the world within you, nurturing your inner thoughts is key to finding genuine happiness.'
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
I'm not a walking extra in a Chekhov play; I'm no Slavic gloom or Irish gloom.
What matters here are the works - finally without them his life would be uninteresting. What matters, that is, are the astonishing things that he left behind. If we can get the life in relation to the works, then it can take off.
In this world, there must be a certain degree of honor just as there must be a certain amount of light. When there are many men without honor, there will always be some others who bear in themselves the honor of many men.
The only standard we have for judging all of our social, economic, and political institutions and arrangements as just or unjust, as good or bad, as better or worse, derives from our conception of the good life for man on earth, and from our conviction that, given certain external conditions, it is possible for men to make good lives for themselves by their own efforts.
Each person is oriented toward a quest for his personal invisible guide, or . . . he entrusts himself to the collective, magisterial authority as the intermediary between himself and Revelation.
A person's worth in this world is estimated according to the value he puts on himself.
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