“It is a tremendous act of violence to begin anything. I am not able to begin. I simply skip what should be the beginning.”

Last update Sept. 29, 2023. History

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Rainer Maria Rilke176

Austrian poet and writer 1875–1926

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As quoted in Memoirs of Count Miot de Melito (1788 - 1815) as translated by Frances Cashel Hoey and John Lillie (1881), Vol. II, p. 94
Context: What I have done up to this is nothing. I am only at the beginning of the course I must run. Do you imagine that I triumph in Italy in order to aggrandise the pack of lawyers who form the Directory, and men like Carnot and Barras? What an idea!