“I suppose that's one of the ironies of life doing the wrong thing at the right moment.”
“Irony: Do not let yourself be governed by it, especially not in unproductive moments. In productive ones try to make use of it as one more means of seizing life.”
Letter Two (5 April 1903)
Letters to a Young Poet (1934)
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Rainer Maria Rilke 176
Austrian poet and writer 1875–1926Related quotes
Gardons-nous de l'ironie en jugeant. De toutes les dispositions de l'esprit, l'ironie est la moins intelligente.
Notebook entry, February 24, 1848, cited from Les cahiers de Sainte-Beuve (Paris: Alphonse Lemerre, 1876) p. 75; Christopher Prendergast The Classic (New York: Oxford University Press, 2007) p. 244.
Source: The Phantom Tollbooth
"Letter to Hume Logan" April 22, 1958. Excerpted in 'Letters of Note' by Shaun Usher.
1950s