---
title: "Meaning & Key Takeaway of: And you, Clara Westhoff, how simply and…"
description: "\"“And you, Clara Westhoff, how simply and well you endured, lived through the experience, and made it a forward step in your young existence! So great w..."
image: "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/49d/rainer-maria-rilke-193_beauty_and-you-clara-westhoff-how-simply-and-we_434823.jpg"
---

#  And you, Clara Westhoff, how simply and well you endured…

![“And you, Clara Westhoff, how simply and well you endured, lived through the experience, and made it a forward step in your young existence! So great was your love that it was able to forgive the great dying, and your eye was so sure, even then, that it conceived beauty in all the new colors…” quote by Rainer Maria Rilke](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/49d/rainer-maria-rilke-193_beauty_and-you-clara-westhoff-how-simply-and-we_434823.jpg)   [Download](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/49d/rainer-maria-rilke-193_beauty_and-you-clara-westhoff-how-simply-and-we_434823.jpg) [Open image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/49d/rainer-maria-rilke-193_beauty_and-you-clara-westhoff-how-simply-and-we_434823.jpg)

> ““And you, Clara Westhoff, how simply and well you endured, lived through the experience, and made it a forward step in your young existence! So great was your love that it was able to forgive the great dying, and your eye was so sure, even then, that it conceived beauty in all the new colors, feelings, and gestures of the earth, and that all coming to an end seemed for your feeling only a pretext under which Nature wanted to unfold beauties yet unrevealed. Just as the eyes of angels rest on a dying child, delighting in the similar transfiguration of its half-released little face, so without concern you saw in the dying earth the smile and the beauty and the trust in eternity." ―from letter to Clara Westhoff Schmargendorf (Sunday, November 18, 1900)””

[Rainer Maria Rilke](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/rainer-maria-rilke/)

## About This Quote

This interpretation was drafted with AI assistance. It is one reading of the quote, not the author's own explanation.

Enduring love and grief transforms perception, allowing one to see beauty and eternity even in loss.

**In simple terms:** Love and loss can reveal deeper beauty.

Key Takeaway

Find meaning in loss through love.

Themes

love grief beauty eternity

Mood

reflective poetic

Type

philosophical inspirational

When to use this quote

- personal loss
- artistic creation
- healing processes
- spiritual contemplation

Key Concepts

transformation perception spirituality

Questions to Reflect On

- How does grief shape your view of beauty?
- Can love truly transcend death?

A Different Perspective

The view may be idealized, ignoring practical pain.

★ ★ ★ ★ ★   No ratings yet

[Beauty](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/beauty/) [Death](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/death/) [Eternity](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/eternity/) [Life](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/life/) [Nature](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/nature/)

## Related quotes

> [“the stars were the eyes of the angels watching over the world,”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/christine-warren/the-stars-were-the-eyes-of-the-angels-watching-over-the-world/)

[Christine Warren](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/christine-warren/)

> [“Marriage creates one world for your child. For that alone, two old friends can try to see a peaceful world through the eyes of…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/shannon-l-alder/marriage-creates-one-world-for-your-child-for-that-alone-two-old/)

[Shannon L. Alder](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/shannon-l-alder/)

> [Poets are damned but they are not blind, they see with the eyes of angels.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/william-carlos-williams/poets-are-damned-but-they-are-not-blind-they-see-with-the-eyes-of/)

[William Carlos Williams](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/william-carlos-williams/)

> [Poets are Damned... but See with the Eyes of Angels.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/allen-ginsberg/poets-are-damned-but-see-with-the-eyes-of-angels/)

[Allen Ginsberg](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/allen-ginsberg/)

> [“Songs of longing! And they will resound in my letters, just as they always have, sometimes loudly and sometimes secretly so that you alone…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/rainer-maria-rilke/songs-of-longing-and-they-will-resound-in-my-letters-just-as-they/)

[Rainer Maria Rilke](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/rainer-maria-rilke/)

> [“The Letters to a young poet illustrate perfectly the kindliness, the complexity, and at the same time the impersonality and remoteness of Rilke’s manner…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/rainer-maria-rilke/the-letters-to-a-young-poet-illustrate-perfectly-the-kindliness-the/)

[Rainer Maria Rilke](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/rainer-maria-rilke/)

> [“Lovers were not, Marina, are not permitted to know destruction so deeply. Must be as if they were new. Only their grave is old,…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/rainer-maria-rilke/lovers-were-not-marina-are-not-permitted-to-know-destruction-so/)

[Rainer Maria Rilke](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/rainer-maria-rilke/)

> [“Do you remember…(doesn’t that appear in each of my letters?), do you remember that you spoke of how eagerly you experienced that period when…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/rainer-maria-rilke/do-you-remember-doesn-t-that-appear-in-each-of-my-letters-do-you/)

[Rainer Maria Rilke](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/rainer-maria-rilke/)

> [“How they are all about, these gentlemen In chamberlains' apparel, stocked and laced, Like night around their order's star and gem And growing ever…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/rainer-maria-rilke/how-they-are-all-about-these-gentlemen-in-chamberlains-apparel/)

[Rainer Maria Rilke](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/rainer-maria-rilke/)

> [“think: the hero prolongs himself, even his falling was only a pretext for being, his latest rebirth.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/rainer-maria-rilke/think-the-hero-prolongs-himself-even-his-falling-was-only-a-pretext/)

[Rainer Maria Rilke](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/rainer-maria-rilke/)

> [“If you were to give yourself over to this angel, Rilke tells the reader, some day, some night, the angel’s light hands kämen denn…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/rainer-maria-rilke/if-you-were-to-give-yourself-over-to-this-angel-rilke-tells-the/)

[Rainer Maria Rilke](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/rainer-maria-rilke/)

> [“We of the here-and-now are not for a moment satisfied in the world of time, nor are we bound in it; we are continually…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/rainer-maria-rilke/we-of-the-here-and-now-are-not-for-a-moment-satisfied-in-the-world-of/)

[Rainer Maria Rilke](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/rainer-maria-rilke/)

> [“Not numbering and counting, but ripening like a tree.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/rainer-maria-rilke/not-numbering-and-counting-but-ripening-like-a-tree/)

[Rainer Maria Rilke](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/rainer-maria-rilke/)

> [“As one puts a handkerchief before pent-in-breath- no: as one presses it against a wound out of which the whole of life, in a…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/rainer-maria-rilke/as-one-puts-a-handkerchief-before-pent-in-breath-no-as-one-presses-it/)

[Rainer Maria Rilke](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/rainer-maria-rilke/)

> [May you eat an unfamiliar dessert in a strange land at least once every three years. May you wake up... and start dancing while…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/rob-brezsny/may-you-eat-an-unfamiliar-dessert-in-a-strange-land-at-least-once/)

[Rob Brezsny](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/rob-brezsny/)

## More by Rainer Maria Rilke

> [The artist's experience lies so unbelievably close to the sexual, to its pain and its pleasure, that the two phenomena are really just different…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/rainer-maria-rilke/the-artist-s-experience-lies-so-unbelievably-close-to-the-sexual-to/)

[Rainer Maria Rilke](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/rainer-maria-rilke/)

> [“Out of infinite longings rise finite deeds like weak fountains, falling back just in time and trembling. And yet, what otherwise remains silent, our…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/rainer-maria-rilke/out-of-infinite-longings-rise-finite-deeds-like-weak-fountains/)

[Rainer Maria Rilke](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/rainer-maria-rilke/)

> [“I love the dark hours of my being. My mind deepens into them. There I can find, as in old letters, the days of…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/rainer-maria-rilke/i-love-the-dark-hours-of-my-being-my-mind-deepens-into-them-there-i/)

[Rainer Maria Rilke](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/rainer-maria-rilke/)

> [“A complete sharing between two people is an impossibility and whenever it seems, nevertheless, to exist, it is a narrowing, a mutual agreement which…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/rainer-maria-rilke/a-complete-sharing-between-two-people-is-an-impossibility-and/)

[Rainer Maria Rilke](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/rainer-maria-rilke/)

> [“But this is what ... people are so often and disastrously wrong in doing: they (who by their very nature are impatient) fling themselves…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/rainer-maria-rilke/but-this-is-what-people-are-so-often-and-disastrously-wrong-in-doing/)

[Rainer Maria Rilke](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/rainer-maria-rilke/)

> [“If there is nothing you can share with other people, try to be close to Things. Things will not abandon you. The nights are…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/rainer-maria-rilke/if-there-is-nothing-you-can-share-with-other-people-try-to-be-close/)

[Rainer Maria Rilke](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/rainer-maria-rilke/)

> [To be here is immense.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/rainer-maria-rilke/to-be-here-is-immense/)

[Rainer Maria Rilke](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/rainer-maria-rilke/)

> [“Sin is the most wonderfully roundabout path to God”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/rainer-maria-rilke/sin-is-the-most-wonderfully-roundabout-path-to-god/)

[Rainer Maria Rilke](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/rainer-maria-rilke/)

> [Swells, Marina? we ocean, depths, Marina? we sky!](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/rainer-maria-rilke/swells-marina-we-ocean-depths-marina-we-sky/)

[Rainer Maria Rilke](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/rainer-maria-rilke/)

> [“The point of marriage is not to create a quick commonality by tearing down all boundaries; on the contrary, a good marriage is one…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/rainer-maria-rilke/the-point-of-marriage-is-not-to-create-a-quick-commonality-by-tearing/)

[Rainer Maria Rilke](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/rainer-maria-rilke/)

> [You life will find its own paths... and that they be good, rich, and wide is what I wish for you, more than I…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/rainer-maria-rilke/you-life-will-find-its-own-paths-and-that-they-be-good-rich-and-wide/)

[Rainer Maria Rilke](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/rainer-maria-rilke/)

> [I do not want to be folded for where I am folded, there I am a lie.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/rainer-maria-rilke/i-do-not-want-to-be-folded-for-where-i-am-folded-there-i-am-a-lie/)

[Rainer Maria Rilke](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/rainer-maria-rilke/)

> [At no other time (than autumn) does the earth let itself be inhaled in one smell, the ripe earth; in a smell that is…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/rainer-maria-rilke/at-no-other-time-than-autumn-does-the-earth-let-itself-be-inhaled-in/)

[Rainer Maria Rilke](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/rainer-maria-rilke/)

> [“That is why the sadness passes: the new presence inside us, the presence that has been added, has entered our heart, has gone into…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/rainer-maria-rilke/that-is-why-the-sadness-passes-the-new-presence-inside-us-the/)

[Rainer Maria Rilke](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/rainer-maria-rilke/)

> [“Have patience with everything that remains unsolved in your heart. Try to love the questions themselves, like locked rooms, like books written in a…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/rainer-maria-rilke/have-patience-with-everything-that-remains-unsolved-in-your-heart-try/)

[Rainer Maria Rilke](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/rainer-maria-rilke/)

[Explore all 861 Rainer Maria Rilke quotes ](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/rainer-maria-rilke/)

## More Beauty quotes

> [We do not want nowadays temples of worship and outward rites and ceremonies. What we really want is an Asram. We want a place…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/rabindranath-tagore/we-do-not-want-nowadays-temples-of-worship-and-outward-rites-and/)

[Rabindranath Tagore](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/rabindranath-tagore/)

> [How could anybody confuse truth with beauty, I thought as I looked at him. Truth came with sunken eyes, bony or scarred, decayed. Its…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/janet-fitch/how-could-anybody-confuse-truth-with-beauty-i-thought-as-i-looked-at/)

[Janet Fitch](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/janet-fitch/)

> [A thing of beauty is a joy for ever;It's loveliness increase;it will never pass into nothingness;but still will keep a bower quiet for us,and…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/john-keats/a-thing-of-beauty-is-a-joy-for-ever-it-s-loveliness-increase-it-will/)

[John Keats](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/john-keats/)

> [To fathom the power, to witness the beauty, to bathe in the fountain, to swing on the spiral of our divinity, and still be…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/tool/to-fathom-the-power-to-witness-the-beauty-to-bathe-in-the-fountain-to/)

[Tool](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/tool/)

> [The term "black metal" has become a lot looser, or can include a larger range of sounds and extra-musical aesthetics, not just Satan and…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/colin-marston/the-term-black-metal-has-become-a-lot-looser-or-can-include-a-larger/)

[Colin Marston](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/colin-marston/)

> [“We've all met people who are beautiful on the outside, however, when they open their mouths to speak, they have nothing of substance to…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/susan-c-young/we-ve-all-met-people-who-are-beautiful-on-the-outside-however-when/)

[Susan C. Young](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/susan-c-young/)

> [There are various orders of beauty, causing men to make fools of themselves in various styles.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/george-eliot/there-are-various-orders-of-beauty-causing-men-to-make-fools-of/)

[George Eliot](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/george-eliot/)

> [To me, the beauty of a quilt or a dress lies within the stitches and the thought of the person who made them. When…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/natalie/to-me-the-beauty-of-a-quilt-or-a-dress-lies-within-the-stitches-and/)

[Natalie](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/natalie/)

> [“do not misunderstand person by beauty You really do not know its real or Mask on dirty thoughts”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/mohammed-zaki-ansari/do-not-misunderstand-person-by-beauty-you-really-do-not-know-its-real/)

[Mohammed Zaki Ansari](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/mohammed-zaki-ansari/)

> [“I already love in you your beauty, but I am only beginning to love in you that which is eternal and ever precious –…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/leo-tolstoy/i-already-love-in-you-your-beauty-but-i-am-only-beginning-to-love-in/)

[Leo Tolstoy](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/leo-tolstoy/)

> [The more perfect the sight is the more delightful the beautiful object. The more perfect the appetite, the sweeter the food. The more musical…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/richard-baxter/the-more-perfect-the-sight-is-the-more-delightful-the-beautiful/)

[Richard Baxter](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/richard-baxter/)

> [Call her beautiful a million times and she won't believe you. Call her ugly once, and she will never forget it.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/tumblr/call-her-beautiful-a-million-times-and-she-won-t-believe-you-call-her/)

Tumblr

> [Time can but make her beauty over again.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/william-butler-yeats/time-can-but-make-her-beauty-over-again/)

[William Butler Yeats](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/william-butler-yeats/)

> [ The social \[media channel\] isn't about beauty contests and popularity contests. They're a distortion, a caricature of the real thing. It's about trust, connection,… ](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/umair-haque/the-social-media-channel-isn-t-about-beauty-contests-and-popularity/)

[Umair Haque](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/umair-haque/)

> [“What about you? What do you do?” I needed to ask questions, draw him out. I needed to find out all the information I…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/kate-avery-ellison/what-about-you-what-do-you-do-i-needed-to-ask-questions-draw-him-out/)

[Kate Avery Ellison](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/kate-avery-ellison/)

[Browse all 24,662 Beauty quotes ](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/beauty/)

```json
{
    "@context": "https://schema.org",
    "@graph": [
        {
            "@type": "Quotation",
            "text": "“And you, Clara Westhoff, how simply and well you endured, lived through the experience, and made it a forward step in your young existence! So great was your love that it was able to forgive the great dying, and your eye was so sure, even then, that it conceived beauty in all the new colors, feelings, and gestures of the earth, and that all coming to an end seemed for your feeling only a pretext under which Nature wanted to unfold beauties yet unrevealed. Just as the eyes of angels rest on a dying child, delighting in the similar transfiguration of its half-released little face, so without concern you saw in the dying earth the smile and the beauty and the trust in eternity.\" ―from letter to Clara Westhoff Schmargendorf (Sunday, November 18, 1900)”",
            "creator": {
                "@type": "Person",
                "name": "Rainer Maria Rilke"
            },
            "isPartOf": {
                "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#website"
            },
            "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/rainer-maria-rilke/and-you-clara-westhoff-how-simply-and-well-you-endured-lived-through/",
            "about": {
                "@type": "Thing",
                "name": "Beauty"
            },
            "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/rainer-maria-rilke/and-you-clara-westhoff-how-simply-and-well-you-endured-lived-through/#quotation",
            "image": {
                "@type": "ImageObject",
                "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/49d/rainer-maria-rilke-193_beauty_and-you-clara-westhoff-how-simply-and-we_434823.jpg",
                "contentUrl": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/49d/rainer-maria-rilke-193_beauty_and-you-clara-westhoff-how-simply-and-we_434823.jpg",
                "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/49d/rainer-maria-rilke-193_beauty_and-you-clara-westhoff-how-simply-and-we_434823.jpg",
                "width": 1080,
                "height": 1080,
                "caption": "“And you, Clara Westhoff, how simply and well you endured, lived through the experience, and made it a…” — Rainer Maria Rilke",
                "creditText": "SMS4Smile Quotes",
                "creator": {
                    "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization"
                }
            }
        },
        {
            "@type": "BreadcrumbList",
            "itemListElement": [
                {
                    "@type": "ListItem",
                    "position": 1,
                    "name": "Home",
                    "item": "https://sms4smile.com/"
                },
                {
                    "@type": "ListItem",
                    "position": 2,
                    "name": "Quotes",
                    "item": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/"
                },
                {
                    "@type": "ListItem",
                    "position": 3,
                    "name": "Rainer Maria Rilke",
                    "item": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/rainer-maria-rilke/"
                },
                {
                    "@type": "ListItem",
                    "position": 4,
                    "name": "“And you, Clara Westhoff, how simply...",
                    "item": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/rainer-maria-rilke/and-you-clara-westhoff-how-simply-and-well-you-endured-lived-through/"
                }
            ],
            "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/rainer-maria-rilke/and-you-clara-westhoff-how-simply-and-well-you-endured-lived-through/#breadcrumb"
        },
        {
            "@type": "WebSite",
            "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#website",
            "name": "SMS4Smile Quotes",
            "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/",
            "publisher": {
                "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization"
            }
        },
        {
            "@type": "Organization",
            "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization",
            "name": "SMS4Smile Quotes",
            "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/",
            "logo": {
                "@type": "ImageObject",
                "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/wp-content/themes/sq/assets/icons/icon-512.png",
                "width": 512,
                "height": 512
            }
        }
    ]
}
```
