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

— Rainer Maria Rilke, Letters to a Young Poet, Letter One, 17 February 1903

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.”

“A work of art is good if it has grown out of necessity.”

“I wanted only to live in accord with the promptings which came from my true self. Why was that so very difficult?”

“The young have exalted notions, because they have not been humbled by life or learned its necessary limitations.”

“You never know how much you really believe anything until its truth or falsehood becomes a matter of life and death to you.”

“The consciousness of life is higher than life, the knowledge of the laws of happiness is higher than happiness.”

“Life was meant to be lived, and curiosity must be kept alive. One must never, for whatever reason, turn his back on life.”

“Life consists in the alternate process of learning and unlearning; but it is often wiser to unlearn than to learn.”