Quotations

"Let life happen to you. Believe me: life is in the right, always."

— Rainer Maria Rilke, Bohemian-Austrian poet, born 1875

"I hold this to be the highest task for a bond between two people: that each protects the solitude of the other."

— Rainer Maria Rilke, Bohemian-Austrian poet, born 1875

"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 needs our love."

— Rainer Maria Rilke, Bohemian-Austrian poet, born 1875

"Poetry is a God breathing."

— Rainer Maria Rilke, Bohemian-Austrian poet, born 1875

"I have stretched ropes from steeple to steeple; garlands from window to window; golden chains from star to star, and I dance."

— Arthur Rimbaud, French poet, born 1854

"I turned silences and nights into words. What was unutterable, I wrote down. I made the whirling world stand still."

— Arthur Rimbaud, French poet, born 1854

"The poet, therefore, is truly the thief of fire. He is responsible for humanity, for animals even; he will have to make sure his visions can be smelled, fondled, listened to; if what he brings back from beyond has form, he gives it form; if it has none, he gives it none."

— Arthur Rimbaud, French poet, born 1854

"Yet this is the watch by night. Let us all accept new strength, and real tenderness. And at dawn, armed with glowing patience, we will enter the cities of glory."

— Arthur Rimbaud, French poet, born 1854

"What an old maid I'm getting to be—lacking the courage to be in love with death!"

— Arthur Rimbaud, French poet, born 1854

"I had no idea of the historical evolution of the civilized world's music and had not realized that all modern music owes everything to Bach."

— Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov, Russian composer, born March 18, 1844

"You cannot sit here in the shrine room serenely practicing and then walk out that door and treat each other badly. If you meditate in perfect peace and then flash someone an irritable look because they make noise or their child cries, you are entirely missing the point."

— Khandro Rinpoche, Indian spiritual leader, born August 19, 1967

"Whatever is born is impermanent and is bound to die.
Whatever is stored up is impermanent and bound to run out.
Whatever comes together is impermanent and is bound to come apart.
Whatever is built is impermanent and bound to collapse.
Whatever rises up is impermanent and bound to fall down.
So, also, friendship and enmity, fortune and sorrow, good and evil, all the
thoughts that run through your mind—everything is always changing."

— Patrul Rinpoche, Tibetan Buddhist teacher, born 1808

"We give because someone gave us. We give because nobody gave to us. We give because giving has changed us. We give because giving could have changed us."

— Alberto Rios, American poet, born 1952

"I know that each one of us travels to love alone, alone to faith and to death. I know it. I've tried it. It doesn't help. Let me come with you."

— Yiannis Ritsos, Greek poet, born 1909