Rainer Maria Rilke on the unlived life.
There is always what will turn out to be the life we led, and the life that accompanied it, the parallel life (or lives) that never actually happened, that we lived in our minds, the wished-for life (or lives): the risks untaken and the opportunities avoided or unprovided. We refer to them as our unloved lives because somewhere we believe that the
... See moreAdam Phillips • Missing Out: In Praise of the Unlived Life
Most of us have two lives. The life we live, and the unlived life within us. Between the two stands Resistance.
Steven Pressfield • The War of Art
So we may need to think of ourselves as always living a double life, the one that we wish for and the one that we practice; the one that never happens and the one that keeps happening.
Adam Phillips • Missing Out: In Praise of the Unlived Life
In the early 20th century, Rilke wrote a wonderful series of letters to a young poet in which he counseled, "Be patient with all that is unresolved in your heart." He said, "Try to love the questions themselves as though they were locked rooms or books written in a very foreign language." He said, "Don't try to reach for the answers which could not... See more