woolfen's review against another edition
4.0
3.5-4 Stars.
- Initially, this book landed very well and was 5 stars, but then waned in what I got out of it. I think upon a reread I would rate it higher. I read it in great bursts, after not touching it for a while.
A delightful reflection on solitude that urges us to find comfort and well-being in the development of loneliness, of trusting in the movements of human souls. A romantic existential counsel on what it means to live.
"[I] beg you earnestly to have patience will all unsolved problems in your heart and to try to love the questions themselves like locked rooms, or books that are written in a foreign tongue. Do not search now for the answers, which cannot be given you, because you could not live. That is the point, to live everything."
"To love, too, is good, for love is difficult. Loving between human being and human being, that is perhaps the most difficult thing with which we have been charged... With their whole being, with all their strength collected about their lonely, timid, upward straining heats they must learn to love. Apprenticeship is always a long time of seclusion, and so love, too, is for a long time right far into life, just loneliness, increased and deepened solitude for him who loves."
"Of these changes, many may happen suddenly, and then as with the man on the mountain-top, there arise strange fancies and unusual feelings, which seem to be greater than he can. But it is necessary for us to experience that, too. We must accept existence as far as ever it is possible. Everything, even the most unheard of things, must be possible in it."
"You over-estimate the victory; it is not the victory that is the 'great thing' you think you have performed... The great thing is this, that there was already something there which you could put in the place of that deception, something true and real."
- Initially, this book landed very well and was 5 stars, but then waned in what I got out of it. I think upon a reread I would rate it higher. I read it in great bursts, after not touching it for a while.
A delightful reflection on solitude that urges us to find comfort and well-being in the development of loneliness, of trusting in the movements of human souls. A romantic existential counsel on what it means to live.
"[I] beg you earnestly to have patience will all unsolved problems in your heart and to try to love the questions themselves like locked rooms, or books that are written in a foreign tongue. Do not search now for the answers, which cannot be given you, because you could not live. That is the point, to live everything."
"To love, too, is good, for love is difficult. Loving between human being and human being, that is perhaps the most difficult thing with which we have been charged... With their whole being, with all their strength collected about their lonely, timid, upward straining heats they must learn to love. Apprenticeship is always a long time of seclusion, and so love, too, is for a long time right far into life, just loneliness, increased and deepened solitude for him who loves."
"Of these changes, many may happen suddenly, and then as with the man on the mountain-top, there arise strange fancies and unusual feelings, which seem to be greater than he can. But it is necessary for us to experience that, too. We must accept existence as far as ever it is possible. Everything, even the most unheard of things, must be possible in it."
"You over-estimate the victory; it is not the victory that is the 'great thing' you think you have performed... The great thing is this, that there was already something there which you could put in the place of that deception, something true and real."
mcgbreads's review against another edition
4.0
"En cuanto a los sentimientos: son auténticos los que le concentran y elevan; impuro es el sentimiento que le agarra por una parte de su ser y así lo desfigura. Todo lo que usted pueda meditar acerca de su infancia, es bueno. Todo lo que le hace ser más de lo que era hasta ahora en sus mejores momentos, es acertado. Cada incremento es bueno si esta en toda su sangre, si no es ebriedad o turbulencia, sino alegría que deja ver el fondo."
makennadykstra's review against another edition
5.0
if rilke is routinely so late to answer his pen pal, then so too can i be late responding to emails?
“you are so young, so before all beginning, and i want to beg you, as much as i can, dear sir, to be patient toward all that is unsolved in your heart and to try to love the questions themselves like locked rooms and like books that are written in a very foreign tongue. do not now seek the answers, which cannot be given you because you would not be able to live them. and the point is to live everything. live the questions now. perhaps you will then gradually. without noticing it, live along some distant day into the answer” (27)
“you are so young, so before all beginning, and i want to beg you, as much as i can, dear sir, to be patient toward all that is unsolved in your heart and to try to love the questions themselves like locked rooms and like books that are written in a very foreign tongue. do not now seek the answers, which cannot be given you because you would not be able to live them. and the point is to live everything. live the questions now. perhaps you will then gradually. without noticing it, live along some distant day into the answer” (27)
junosdaughter's review against another edition
hopeful
reflective
relaxing
fast-paced
3.75
“It is necessary —and toward this our development will move gradually —that nothing strange should befall us, but only that which has long belonged to us.”
Letter Eight saved lives. Letter Eight is a candle in the dark for young people everywhere. Letter Eight is my friend, my mother, my security blanket. Letter Eight…
Letter Eight saved lives. Letter Eight is a candle in the dark for young people everywhere. Letter Eight is my friend, my mother, my security blanket. Letter Eight…
minervaxyz's review against another edition
emotional
funny
hopeful
informative
inspiring
reflective
relaxing
sad
5.0
agggg
he escrito tanto EN el libro que no sé que decir DEl libro
precioso
me da es🍐nza en la humanidad
he escrito tanto EN el libro que no sé que decir DEl libro
precioso
me da es🍐nza en la humanidad
mrklhn's review against another edition
This brief collection offers reassurances to a solitary young writer who is learning his own self-possession. The content of the letters translates easily to modern life as learning to be alone requires careful attention. Rilke has a way of being empathetic while remaining distant as to acknowledge the space that exists between everyone.