It is not inertia alone that is responsible for human relationships repeating themselves from case to case, indescribably monotonous and unrenewed: it is shyness before any sort of new, unforeseeable experience with which one does not think oneself able to cope. But only someone who is ready for everything, who excludes nothing, not even the most enigmatical will live the relation to another as something alive. Rainer Maria Rilke
About This Quote

Although this quote is not about relationships in particular, it is still relevant to the message of the entire book. The speaker is talking about his own life and how he felt when he was in a relationship with someone else, but in reality, the relationship only led to more loneliness in his life. He is saying that in order to have a fulfilling relationship, one must be open to new experiences and be willing to accept any challenge that comes their way.

Source: Letters To A Young Poet

Some Similar Quotes
  1. Perhaps the truth depends on a walk around the lake. - Wallace Stevens

  2. To be great, be whole; Exclude nothing, exaggerate nothing that is not you. Be whole in everything. Put all you are Into the smallest thing you do. So, in each lake, the moon shines with splendor Because it blooms up above. - Fernando Pessoa

  3. The poet's job is to put into words those feelings we all have that are so deep, so important, and yet so difficult to name, to tell the truth in such a beautiful way, that people cannot live without it. - Jane Kenyon

  4. Truth is a friendthat asks for loyaltyand acceptancethen it enters our heartsdissolving the boundariesfreeing us from lonliness - Nirmala

  5. Trees are poems the earth writes upon the sky, We fell them down and turn them into paper, That we may record our emptiness. - Kahlil Gibran

More Quotes By Rainer Maria Rilke
  1. Perhaps all the dragons in our lives are princesses who are only waiting to see us act, just once, with beauty and courage. Perhaps everything that frightens us is, in its deepest essence, something helpless that wants our love.

  2. Therefore, dear Sir, love your solitude and try to sing out with the pain it causes you. For those who are near you are far away.. and this shows that the space around you is beginning to grow vast.. be happy about your growth, in...

  3. Believe in a love that is being stored up for you like an inheritance, and have faith that in this love there is a strength and a blessing so large that you can travel as far as you wish without having to step outside it.

  4. For one human being to love another human being: that is perhaps the most difficult task that has been given to us, the ultimate, the final problem and proof, the work for which all other work is merely preparation.

  5. To love is good, too: love being difficult. For one human being to love another: that is perhaps the most difficult of all our tasks, the ultimate, the last test and proof, the work for which all other work is but preparation.. Love is a...

Related Topics