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Meaning
The quote says life does not offer a gentle training period before hardship begins. It suggests people are expected to face difficult problems immediately, without much preparation. It also implies that learning to live means learning by doing, not by easing in.
When It Was Said
Not documented yet.
Who It Was Said To
Not documented yet.
Historical Context
Not documented yet.
Source
The Notebooks of Malte Laurids Brigge (2008)
Original Language & Translation
Originally said in English.
Did They Really Say It?
The phrase appears in the book "The Notebooks of Malte Laurids Brigge (2008)" by Rainer Maria Rilke (Google Books snippet); no earlier source was checked.
Did You Know?
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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.
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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