Rainer Maria Rilke on being someone who is ready for everything

May 1, 2026 Mike Zonta Leave a comment

Rilke in 1900

“Only someone who is ready for everything, who doesn’t exclude any experience, even the most incomprehensible, will live the relationship with another person as something alive and will himself sound the depths of his own being.”

~ Rainer Maria Rilke

René Karl Wilhelm Johann Josef Maria Rilke, known as Rainer Maria Rilke, was an Austrian poet. Acclaimed as an idiosyncratic and expressive poet, he is widely recognized as a significant writer in the German language. Wikipedia

Born December 4, 1875, Prague, Czechia

Died December 29, 1926 (age 51 years), Montreux, Switzerland

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Quotes

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“[Diabolic] comes from the Greek word diabolos; ‘diabolic’ is the term in contemporary English. Diabolos, interestingly enough, literally means ‘to tear apart’ (dia-bollein). Now it is fascinating to note that this diabolic is the antonym of ‘symbolic.’ The later comes from sym-bollein, which means ‘to throw together,’ to unite. There lie in these words tremendous implications with respect to an ontology of good and evil. The symbolic is that which draws together, ties, integrates the individual in himself and with his group; the diabolic, in contrast, is that which disintegrates and tears apart. Both of these are present in the daimonic.”
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“Give me some TRUTH!”
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“I tore myself away from the safe comfort of certainties through my love for truth – and truth rewarded me.”
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“The Cosmic Intention is to evolve from a thing to a think.”
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“It is so respectful to not get involved in somebody else’s angst.”
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“There is a crack in everything. That’s how the light gets in.”
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“We think sometimes that poverty is only being hungry, naked and homeless. The poverty of being unwanted, unloved and uncared for is the greatest poverty. We must start in our own homes to remedy this kind of poverty.”
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“Loneliness is the poverty of self, solitude is the richness of self.”
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“Man will not be satisfied until he is everywhere equally present.”
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“Human consciousness is how the universe understands itself.”
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“Gravity is a matter of interest.”
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“There is NO gender to art.”
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“What was once invention is now convention.”
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“You can’t change your shoes while you’re standing in them.”
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“Love? What is it? Most natural pain killer what there is. LOVE.”
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“I am all other men.”
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“We have a right to know the truth; no right to ask anything else from God, but the right to know that.”
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“Give thanks to unknown blessings already on their way.”
— Native American proverb at cafe in San Francisco

“To be nobody but yourself in a world which is doing its best, night and day, to make you like everybody else means to fight the hardest battle which any human being can fight; and never stop fighting.”
–e.e. cummings

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Bathtub Bulletin

Rainer Maria Rilke on being someone who is ready for everything

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Consciousness, sexuality, androgyny, futurism, space, the arts, science, astrology, democracy, humor, books, movies and more