Who is there today who still cares about a well-finished death? No one. Even the rich, who could after all afford this luxury, are beginning to grow lazy and indifferent; the desire to have a death of one's own is becoming more and more rare. In a short time it will be as rare as a life of one's own.
Interpretation
The quote reflects on the diminishing value society places on the quality of one's death, paralleling it with the neglect of living a meaningful life.
Rainer Maria Rilke's quote emphasizes that in contemporary society, the significance of having a well-composed and meaningful death is increasingly overlooked. This indifference extends even to the wealthy, who have the means to seek a dignified end but instead choose a path of laziness and apathy. Rilke warns that just as thoughtful engagement with death is fading, so too is the pursuit of a genuinely fulfilled life, suggesting a troubling trend regarding our values surrounding existence and mortality.
In practice
In a eulogy, one could use this quote to highlight the importance of living an intentional life.
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
If everything in the environment is utterly predictable, you become bored. If it's utterly unpredictable, you become frustrated.
For a long time the human instinct to understand was thwarted by facile religious explanations.
Divine Nature gave the fields, human art built the cities.
Men are not governed by justice, but by law or persuasion. When they refuse to be governed by law or persuasion, they have to be governed by force or fraud, or both.
I speak to the paper, as I speak to the first person I meet.
There is only one way to put an end to evil, and that is to do good for evil.
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