Rainer Maria Rilke, Duino Elegies Quotes

Every angel is terrifying.

For beauty is nothing but the beginning of terrorwhich we are barely able to endure, and it amazes us so, because it serenely disdains to destroy us.Every angel is terrible.

For beauty is nothing but the beginning of terror.

Isn’t it time that, loving, we freed ourselves from the beloved, and, trembling, endured:as the arrow endures the bow, so as to be, in its flight, something more than itself?

Isn't it time that, in love, we freed ourselves from the loved one and, trembling, endured:as the arrow endures the string, collecting itselfto be more than itself as it shoots?

Look, I am living. On what? Neither childhood nor futurelessens . . . . Superabundant existencewells in my heart.

We only pass everything by like a transposition of air.