Share & Save
Meaning
The quote says that a healthy relationship is not about constant closeness. Instead, each person should respect the other's need for privacy, inner life, and space to be alone. It presents mutual protection of solitude as a high form of care.
When It Was Said
Not documented yet.
Who It Was Said To
Not documented yet.
Historical Context
Not documented yet.
Source
Letters of Rainer Maria Rilke, 1892-1910 (1945)
Original Language & Translation
Originally said in English.
Did They Really Say It?
The phrase appears in the book "Letters of Rainer Maria Rilke, 1892-1910 (1945)" by Rainer Maria Rilke (Google Books snippet); no earlier source was checked.
Did You Know?
Not documented yet.
About Rainer Maria Rilke
Austrian poet
Rainer Maria Rilke was an Austrian poet and major German-language writer. He is remembered for writing with a distinctive, highly expressive voice, and for work that critics have often read as marked by mysticism. His writing explores subjective experience and doubt, and it spans poetry, one novel, several volumes of correspondence, and a few early novellas. These pieces helped establish his reputation as a writer whose language is intimate, reflective, and inward-looking.
More from Rainer Maria Rilke (201 quotes) →Other sayings from Rainer Maria Rilke
- “How they are all about, these gentlemenIn chamberlains' apparel, stocked and laced,Like night around their or…”Rainer Maria Rilke
- “Go into yourself. Find out the reason that commands you to write; see whether it has spread its roots into th…”Rainer Maria Rilke
- “weren’t you alwaysdistracted by expectation, as if every eventannounced a beloved? (Where can you find a plac…”Rainer Maria Rilke
- “You darkness, that I come from,I love you more than all the firesthat fence in the world,for the fire makesa…”Rainer Maria Rilke
Explore Solitude
- “In the streets outside everything was still. The hour before five was the only time of day this city slept. I…”Karl Ove Knausgård
- “I suppose a lot of people don't understand that one of the things that drew me to hunting was the peace and t…”Shawn Michaels
- “Now I have to lie on the bed for a few minutes and let the solitude gather round me once more.”Martin Amis
READ THE SOURCE
Books by Rainer Maria Rilke
Letters to a young poet
2011
Die Aufzeichnungen des Malte Laurids Brigge
2017
Poems
1997
Neue Gedichte
1998
Stundenbuch
2009