Who said “For one human being to love another: that is perhaps the most difficult of all our…”?

Verified

Rainer Maria Rilke. A published source records them saying or writing it.

SourceLetter Seven (14 May 1904)

Evidence: Wikiquote · How we check

Source checked · Something wrong? Report a correction

Authors A–Z
“For one human being to love another: that is perhaps the most difficult of all our tasks, the ultimate, the last test and proof, the work for which all other work is but preparation.”
— Rainer Maria Rilke
VerifiedLetter Seven (14 May 1904) · evidenceLove

Cite this quote

For academic work, cite the original where you can: Letter Seven (14 May 1904).

APA

Rilke, R. M. (n.d.). For one human being to love another: that is perhaps the most difficult of all our tasks, the ultimate, the last test and proof, the work for which all other work is but preparation. [Quotation]. Famous Quotations Network. Retrieved October 24, 2026, from https://www.famous-quotations.com/quotes/27445-for-one-human-being-to-love-another-that/

MLA

Rilke, Rainer Maria. “For one human being to love another: that is perhaps the most difficult of all our tasks, the ultimate, the last test and proof, the work for which all other work is but preparation.” Famous Quotations Network, https://www.famous-quotations.com/quotes/27445-for-one-human-being-to-love-another-that/. Accessed 24 Oct. 2026.

Chicago

Rilke, Rainer Maria. “For one human being to love another: that is perhaps the most difficult of all our tasks, the ultimate, the last test and proof, the work for which all other work is but preparation.” Famous Quotations Network. Accessed October 24, 2026. https://www.famous-quotations.com/quotes/27445-for-one-human-being-to-love-another-that/.

Related quotes

More quotes by Rainer Maria Rilke

“Surely all art is the result of one's having been in danger, of having gone through an experience all the way to the end, where no one can go any further.”
VerifiedLetter to his wife, reprinted in Rilke’s Letters on Cézanne (1952, trans. 1985). (June 24, 1907) · evidenceDetails & citeArts and Artists
“He [Cézanne] reproduced himself with so much humble objectivity, with the unquestioning, matter of fact interest of a dog who sees himself in a mirror and thinks: there's another dog.”
VerifiedLetter to his wife, reprinted in Rilke’s Letters on Cézanne (1952, trans. 1985). (October 23, 1907) · evidenceDetails & citePortraits
“The great renewal of the world will perhaps consist in this, that man and maid, freed of all false feelings and reluctances, will seek each other not as opposites, but as brother and sister, as neighbors, and will come together as human beings.”
VerifiedLetter Four (16 July 1903) · evidenceDetails & citeMen and Women
“Just as language has no longer anything in common with the thing it names, so the movements of most of the people who live in cities have lost their connection with the earth; they hang, as it were, in the air, hover in all directions, and find no place where they can settle.”
VerifiedWorpswede (1903) · evidenceDetails & citeCities and City Life
“Painting is something that takes place among the colors, and one has to leave them alone completely, so that they can settle the matter among themselves. Their intercourse: this is the whole of painting. Whoever meddles, arranges, injects his human deliberation, his wit, his advocacy, his intellectual agility in any way, is already disturbing and clouding their activity.”
VerifiedLetter to his wife, reprinted in Rilke’s Letters on Cézanne (1952, trans. 1985). (October 21, 1907) · evidenceDetails & citeColor
All 20 Rainer Maria Rilke quotes →