Quotes About Identity

Ask no one to speak of you, not even contemptuously. And when time passes and you notice how your name is spreading around among people, don't take it more seriously than any of the other things you find on their lips. Think: your name has turned bad, and get rid of it. Take on another, any other, so that God can call you in the night. And conceal it from everyone.

I would describe myself like a landscape I've studied at length, in detail; like a word I'm coming to understand; like a pitcher I pour from at mealtime; like my mother's face; like a ship that carried me when the waters raged.

But to be what I am, to live what I was meant to live, to want to sound like no one else, to yield the blossoms dictated to my heart: this is what I want - and this surely cannot be arrogance. (Letters on Life)

Fame is nothing but the sum of all the misunderstandings that cluster around a new name…Wherever a human achievement becomes truly great, it seeks to hide its face in the lap of general, nameless greatness.

I live my life in growing orbits which move out over the things of the world. Perhaps I can never achieve the last, but that will be my attempt. I am circling around God, around the ancient tower, and I have been circling for a thousand years, and I still don't know if I am a falcon, or a storm, or a great song.

It is necessary - and toward this point our development will move, little by little - that nothing alien happen to us, but only what has long been our own.

Why must a man be always taking on Things not his own, as if he were a servant whose marketing-bag grows heavier and heavier from stall to stall and, loaded down, he follows and doesn't dare ask: Master, why this banquet?

Was soll ich mit meinem Munde? Mit meiner Nacht? Mit meinem Tag? Ich habe keine Geliebte, kein Haus, keine Stelle auf der ich lebe

Besser vielleicht, du wärest in der Dunkelheit geblieben und dein unabgegrenztes Herz hätte versucht, all des Ununterscheidbaren schweres Herz zu sein.

Some day there will be girls and women whose name will no longer signify merely an opposite of the masculine, but something in itself, something that makes one think, not of any complement and limit, but only of life and existence: the feminine human being. - Rilke

confess to yourself whether you would have to die if writing were denied you.

Confessez-vous à vous-même: mourriez-vous s'il vous était défendu d'écrire ?

ich kreise jahrtausendelang; und ich weiß noch nicht: bin ich ein Falke, ein Sturm

that young man, like the son of a neck and a nun

Because he loves only as a male, and not as a human being

Így csetlünk-botlunk, félig ember, félig gúnykép mindegyikünk: nem vagyunk mi sem színészek, sem valódiak.

You longed to be yourself.

There is only one thing you should do. Go into yourself. Find out the reason that commands you to write; see whether it has spread its roots into the very depths of your heart; confess to yourself whether you would have to die if you were forbidden to write.

For fame is ultimately but the summary of all misunderstandings that crystallize about a new name

Wie einer, der auf fremden Meeren fuhr, so bin ich bei den ewig Einheimischen; die vollen Tage stehn auf ihren Tischen, mir aber ist die Ferne voll Figur. In mein Gesicht reicht eine Welt herein, die vielleicht unbewohnt ist wie ein Mond, sie aber lassen kein Gefühl allein, und alle ihre Worte sind bewohnt. Die Dinge, die ich weither mit mir nahm, sehn selten aus, gehalten an das Ihre -: in ihrer großen Heimat sind sie Tiere, hier halten sie den Atem an vor Scham.

but how can people who have already flung together and no longer set themselves any limits or tell one another apart, and who therefore possess nothing of their own any more, how on earth can they find a way out of themselves, out of the depths of a solitude that has already been spilt and squandered?

There are quantities of human beings, but there are many more faces, for each person has several.

Aparecerá la mujer cuyo nombre ya no significará sólo algo opuesto al hombre, sino algo propio, independiente. Nada que haga pensar en complemento ni en límite, sino tan sólo en vida y en ser: el Humano femenino...

DeÄŸiÅŸmekte olduÄŸumu ne diye birine söyleyeyim ki? DeÄŸiÅŸirken, eski ben olarak kalm?yorum ve ÅŸimdiye kadarkinden biraz daha baÅŸkay?m, dolay?s?yla tan???m kimse olmad??? ortada. Ve yabanc?lara, beni tan?mayan insanlara mümkün deÄŸil yazamam.