Skip to content
quotesby

The demands which the difficult work of love makes upon our development are more than life-size, and as beginners we are not up to them. But if we nevertheless hold out and take this love upon us as burden and apprenticeship, instead of losing ourselves in all the light and frivolous play, behind which people have hidden from the most earnest earnestness of their existence - then a little progress and alleviation will perhaps be perceptible to those who come long after us; that would be much.

Rainer Maria Rilke#49

GrowthLoveChallengeLegacyPerseverance

About this quote

What does it mean?
Love’s demanding work is overwhelming for beginners, but persisting through it can leave a lasting, modest benefit for future generations.
In plain terms
Persisting in love’s hard work yields small lasting benefits.
What can you take from it?
Endure love’s challenges to create a legacy.

Where it applies

  • parenting
  • mentoring
  • artistic creation

Putting it to work

  • write a journal
  • mentor a younger person

Questions to consider

  • What small legacy can love create today?
  • How do you stay motivated during love’s hardships?

Another view

The payoff may be too abstract to motivate immediate effort.

More from Rainer Maria Rilke

  1. Love is at first not anything that means merging, giving over and uniting with another (for what would a union be of something unclarified and unfinished, stil…

    Permalink to quote #48
  2. Young people -it is obvious -cannot achieve such a relationship, but they can, if they understand their life properly, grow up slowly to such happiness and pre…

    Permalink to quote #50
  3. Young people, who are beginners in everything, cannot yet know love: they have to learn it.

    Permalink to quote #47

Related quotes

  1. I certainly had no feeling for harmony, and Schoenberg thought that that would make it impossible for me to write music. He said, 'You'll come to a wall you wo…

    John CageJohn Cage quote #5
  2. Thanks for the information Never give a sucker an even break When he's breaking through To a new level of consciousness There always seems to be more Obstacles…

    Van MorrisonVan Morrison quote #69
  3. While every human being has a capacity for love, its realization is one of the most difficult achievements.

    Erich FrommErich Fromm quote #108