Rainer Maria Rilke on the unlived life.

The scenes of our life are like pictures in rough mosaic, which have no effect at close quarters, but must be looked at from a distance in order to discern their beauty. So that to obtain something we have desired is to find out that it is worthless; we are always living in expectation of better things, while, at the same time, we often repent and
... See moreArthur Schopenhauer • The Collected Essays of Arthur Schopenhauer (Unexpurgated Edition) (Halcyon Classics)
Strange, isn’t it? To have dedicated one’s life to a certain venture, neglecting other aspects of one’s life, only to have that venture, in the end, amount to nothing at all, the products of one’s labors utterly forgotten?
George Saunders • Lincoln in the Bardo: A Novel
If your everyday life seems to lack material, do not blame it; blame yourself, tell yourself that you are not poet enough to summon up its riches, for there is no lack for him who creates and no poor, trivial place.
Rainer Maria Maria Rilke • Letters to a Young Poet (Penguin Classics)
Há um grande cansaço na alma do meu coração. Entristece-me quem eu nunca fui, e não sei que espécie de saudades é a lembrança que tenho dele. Caí contra as esperanças e as certezas, com os poentes todos.