Talent is the capacity to direct concentrated attention upon the subject: “the gift of seeing what others have not seen”.
― Tolstoy
Tolstoy’s quote: “Talent is the capacity…
quote
William Faulkner : “The past…
The past is never dead. It’s not even past.
William Faulkner
Call me by your name quote : “The meaning of the river flowing is not…
“The meaning of the river flowing is not that all things are changing, so that we cannot encounter them twice, but that some things stay the same only by changing.”
…heard in Call me by your Name
Chekhov quote : “Everybody has some passions…
“Everybody has some passions, nobody has the strength”.
A. Chekhov, Platonov
Paul Valéry quote : “Proportion must act…
La proportion doit agir sans se montrer.
Proportion must act without showing up.
Paul Valéry
Proust quote : “Time, in order to become visible, seeks bodies…
“Le Temps qui d’habitude n’est pas visible, qui pour le devenir cherche des corps et, partout où il les rencontre, s’en empare pour montrer sur eux sa lanterne magique”.
Time, in order to become visible, “seeks bodies and everywhere encounters them, seizes them to cast its magic lantern upon them”.
Marcel Proust, quoted by Gilles Deleuze in “Proust and Signes”
Deleuze quote : “The world vacillates…
“Le monde vacille dans le courant de l’apprentissage”.
The world vacillates in the course of apprenticeship
Gilles Deleuze
Thoughts & Quotes about Rilke and patience
There’s a very well known quote from Rilke :
“Have patience with everything that remains unsolved in your heart. Try to love the questions themselves, like locked rooms and like books written in a foreign language. Do not now look for the answers. They cannot now be given to you because you could not live them. It is a question of experiencing everything. At present you need to live the question. Perhaps you will gradually, without even noticing it, find yourself experiencing the answer, some distant day.”
…from the Letters to a young poet.
In fact, when he was around 30; Rilke wrote a few letters to a young man who had asked him advices about poetry. Rilke’s answer is splendid :
“Nobody can advise you and help you, nobody. There is only one way. Go into yourself.”
But at this time he was also writing letters to Lou Andreas-Salomé, who was… 14 years older than him. I read their letters, they are amazing : two high-range brains talking about subtleties of life…
In 1903 he wrote :
“Patience contains everything: humility, strength and moderation.”
Patience, at this time, seemed to be an obsession to him.
How do we hear this today?
- Do we hear that negatively, patience as inertia disguised in virtues? Should we be patient instead of enter a resistance?
- Do we hear that positively, patience as hope? Humility, strength and moderation… Is it linked to indecision “as a decision”?
Savoir Attendre – Know How to Wait
How do you hear it?
Why do I think about Saint-Exupéry?
Les vaincus doivent se taire, comme les graines
The vanquished must stay silent, like the seeds…
Thanks for reading!
Rilke Quote : “Be patient toward all that is unsolved…
“Be patient toward all that is unsolved in your heart and try to love the questions themselves,
like locked rooms and like books that are now written in a very foreign tongue. Do not now seek the answers, which cannot be given you because you would not be able to live them.
And the point is, to live everything. Live the questions now. Perhaps you will then gradually, without noticing it, live along some distant day into the answer.“
R. M. Rilke
René Char quote : “The words which will emerge know…
“The words which will emerge know of us what we ignore of them”
“Les mots qui vont surgir savent de nous ce que nous ignorons d’eux”
René Char
Gertrude Stein Quote : “I like a thing simple but it must…
“I like a thing simple but it must be simple through complication”
Gertrude Stein
#Picasso
Gertrude Stein quote : “I like a view but I like to…
“I like a view but I like to sit with my back turned to it.”
Gertrude Stein
Einstein quote “Everyone is a…
Proust’s quote : “When life walls us in…
“When life walls us in, our intelligence cuts an opening”
“Là où la vie emmure, l’intelligence perce une issue”
Marcel Proust
Pablo Picasso Quote : “Accidents, try to…
Accidents, try to change them – it’s impossible. The accidental reveals man.
Pablo Picasso
Pablo Picasso quote : “What one does is what…
What one does is what counts and not what one had the intention of doing.
Pablo Picasso
Michaux’s quote : “For lack of sun…
Faute de soleil, sache mûrir dans la glace.
Lacking sun, know how to ripen in ice.
Henri Michaux
Roland Barthes quote : “The incapacity to name is a…
“The incapacity to name is a good symptom of disturbance.”
Roland Barthes, Camera Lucida: Reflections on Photography
Paul Valéry : “The adversary’s great triumph…
The adversary’s great triumph is have you believe what he says of you
Paul Valéry
“Le grand triomphe de l’adversaire est de vous faire croire ce qu’il dit de vous.”
Paul Valéry
P. Chamoiseau Quote : “For whom has no questions…
For whom has no questions, books remains sleeping treasures. The breadth of the question one asks to oneself, one applies to the world, nourishes the amplitude of response. If the question exists, everything begins to answer.
“Pour celui qui n’a pas de questions, les livres demeurent des trésors endormis. L’ampleur de la question que l’on se pose à soi, que l’on applique au monde, nourrit les amplitudes de la réponse. Si la question existe, tout se met à répondre”.
Patrick Chamoiseau
Photo : Mona Kuhn
a french toolbox 