“And as for the rest, let life happen to you. Believe me: life is in the right, always.”

— Rainer Maria Rilke, Letters to a Young Poet, Letter Nine (4 November 1904)

About Rainer Maria Rilke

1875 – 1926

Austro-Bohemian poet, best known for 'Letters to a Young Poet' (written 1903–1908, published 1929) and 'Duino Elegies'.

“Have patience with everything unresolved in your heart, and try to love the questions themselves.”

“A good marriage is one in which each partner appoints the other to be the guardian of his solitude.”

“I could give you no advice but this: to go into yourself and to explore the depths where your life wells forth.”

“The wise man will live as long as he ought, not as long as he can.”

“In theory there is nothing to hinder our following what we are taught; but in life there are many things to draw us aside.”

“The better part of valour is discretion; in the which better part I have saved my life.”

“So long as men can breathe or eyes can see, so long lives this, and this gives life to thee.”

“We are such stuff as dreams are made on; and our little life is rounded with a sleep.”

“Life's but a walking shadow, a poor player that struts and frets his hour upon the stage.”