--- title: "Meaning & Key Takeaway of: Quiet friend who has come so far, feel…" description: "\"“Quiet friend who has come so far, feel how your breathing makes more space around you. Let this darkness be a bell tower and you the bell. As you ring..." image: "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/67e/rainer-maria-rilke-193_darkness_quiet-friend-who-has-come-so-far-feel-ho_1547278.jpg" --- # Quiet friend who has come so far, feel how your breathing… ![“Quiet friend who has come so far, feel how your breathing makes more space around you. Let this darkness be a bell tower and you the bell. As you ring, what batters you becomes your strength. Move back and forth into the change. What is it like, such intensity of pain? If the drink is bitter, turn…” quote by Rainer Maria Rilke](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/67e/rainer-maria-rilke-193_darkness_quiet-friend-who-has-come-so-far-feel-ho_1547278.jpg) [Download](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/67e/rainer-maria-rilke-193_darkness_quiet-friend-who-has-come-so-far-feel-ho_1547278.jpg) [Open image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/67e/rainer-maria-rilke-193_darkness_quiet-friend-who-has-come-so-far-feel-ho_1547278.jpg) > ““Quiet friend who has come so far, feel how your breathing makes more space around you. Let this darkness be a bell tower and you the bell. As you ring, what batters you becomes your strength. Move back and forth into the change. What is it like, such intensity of pain? If the drink is bitter, turn yourself to wine. In this uncontainable night, be the mystery at the crossroads of your senses, the meaning discovered there. And if the world has ceased to hear you, say to the silent earth: I flow. To the rushing water, speak: I am. - Let This Darkness Be a Bell Tower”” [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. The poem urges embracing darkness and pain as sources of inner strength, transforming suffering into a resonant self‑assertion and creative flow. **In simple terms:** Turn pain into power and speak your existence. Key Takeaway Embrace hardship, become your own beacon. Themes self‑growth resilience spirituality creativity Mood contemplative hopeful Type poetic inspirational When to use this quote - meditation - creative writing - personal crisis - healing rituals Key Concepts transformation mindfulness inner strength Questions to Reflect On - How can you turn a specific pain into a source of strength? - What does “being the mystery” mean for you? A Different Perspective The metaphor may be too abstract for practical application. ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ No ratings yet [Darkness](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/darkness/) [Darkness Bell](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/darkness-bell-5775016/) [Feel Breathing](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/feel-breathing-804116/) [Friendship](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/friendship/) [Let Darkness](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/let-darkness-472641/) [Poetry](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/poetry/) [Quiet](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/quiet/) ## Related quotes > [Quiet friend who has come so far, feel how your breathing makes more space around you. Let this darkness be a bell tower and…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/rainer-maria-rilke/quiet-friend-who-has-come-so-far-feel-how-your-breathing-makes-more/) [Rainer Maria Rilke](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/rainer-maria-rilke/) > [“I had brutal beginnings. 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When I could feel you breathing and we opened our eyes at the…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/kate-chisman/in-the-morning-that-moment-when-i-knew-it-was-you-when-i-could-feel/) [Kate Chisman](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/kate-chisman/) > [“To ask how I feel about writing is to ask how I feel about breathing.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/shakirah-bourne/to-ask-how-i-feel-about-writing-is-to-ask-how-i-feel-about-breathing/) [Shakirah Bourne](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/shakirah-bourne/) > [Can you feel me breathing down your neck?](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/jeffree-star/can-you-feel-me-breathing-down-your-neck/) [Jeffree Star](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/jeffree-star/) > [When I can feel you breathing into me i, like a stone gargoyle atop some crumbling building, spring to life a resuscitated angel.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/saul-williams/when-i-can-feel-you-breathing-into-me-i-like-a-stone-gargoyle-atop/) [Saul Williams](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/saul-williams/) > [Quite simply, if you're feeling anxious, angry, a sense of shame, whatever it is, breathe in and agree to touch or feel it. 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He's really close, so close I can feel him breathing on the…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/hannah-harrington/jake-shuts-the-van-s-back-doors-and-lies-down-next-to-me-he-s-really/) [Hannah Harrington](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/hannah-harrington/) > [“We sat down and I could feel my breathing quicken as the butterflies returned to dance in my stomach.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/miranda-dickinson/we-sat-down-and-i-could-feel-my-breathing-quicken-as-the-butterflies/) [Miranda Dickinson](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/miranda-dickinson/) > [I feel as though I'm not breathing when I'm out of his presence. He's the oxygen in my air, the sun in my universe,…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/madeleine-l-engle/i-feel-as-though-i-m-not-breathing-when-i-m-out-of-his-presence-he-s/) [Madeleine L'Engle](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/madeleine-l-engle/) > [“Breathing well means breathing more slowly and deeply. Relax, feel your breathing, and breathe comfortably. Once aware, it naturally becomes deeper and slower.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/ilchi-lee/breathing-well-means-breathing-more-slowly-and-deeply-relax-feel-your/) [Ilchi Lee](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/ilchi-lee/) ## 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. 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Things will not abandon you. 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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 Darkness quotes > [“Narrative cannot sustain formlessness any more than light can sustain darkness - it is the antithesis of formlessness, and so it can never truly…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/nicole-krauss/narrative-cannot-sustain-formlessness-any-more-than-light-can-sustain/) [Nicole Krauss](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/nicole-krauss/) > [“Wait here, wait here!" he cried and jumped up and began to run for help toward a cluster of lights he saw in the…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/flannery-o-connor/wait-here-wait-here-he-cried-and-jumped-up-and-began-to-run-for-help/) [Flannery O'Connor](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/flannery-o-connor/) > [Strange - is it not? That of the myriads who Before us passed the door of Darkness through, Not one returns to tell us…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/horace/strange-is-it-not-that-of-the-myriads-who-before-us-passed-the-door/) [Horace](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/horace/) > [When you're scared - and I mean really scared, not just hearing a noise in the night, or standing toe to toe with someone…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/alexander-gordon-smith/when-you-re-scared-and-i-mean-really-scared-not-just-hearing-a-noise/) [Alexander Gordon Smith](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/alexander-gordon-smith/) > [Clear moments are so short. There is much more darkness. More ocean than terra firma. More shadow than form.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/adam-zagajewski/clear-moments-are-so-short-there-is-much-more-darkness-more-ocean/) [Adam Zagajewski](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/adam-zagajewski/) > [I even see the cinema itself as a woman, with its alternation of light and darkness, of appearing and disappearing images](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/federico-fellini/i-even-see-the-cinema-itself-as-a-woman-with-its-alternation-of-light/) [Federico Fellini](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/federico-fellini/) > [I guess he'll have to figure out someday that he is supposed to have this dark side, that it is part of what it…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/anne-lamott/i-guess-he-ll-have-to-figure-out-someday-that-he-is-supposed-to-have/) [Anne Lamott](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/anne-lamott/) > [“I promise to respect and protect your aloneness, knowing that everything created must have its period of darkness: child and bulb, poem and personality.…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/anne-morrow-lindbergh/i-promise-to-respect-and-protect-your-aloneness-knowing-that/) [anne morrow lindbergh](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/anne-morrow-lindbergh/) > [The beauty of darkness is how it lets you see.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/adrienne-rich/the-beauty-of-darkness-is-how-it-lets-you-see/) [Adrienne Rich](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/adrienne-rich/) > [“Even in darkness your lips taste of sunshine”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/francesca-lia-block/even-in-darkness-your-lips-taste-of-sunshine/) [Francesca Lia Block](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/francesca-lia-block/) > [“Defy me not for gleam can only shine in my existence" said Darkness.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/anonymous/defy-me-not-for-gleam-can-only-shine-in-my-existence-said-darkness/) [Anonymous](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/anonymous/) > [“What does he look like? 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Do you see…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/nicole-gentile/twinking-tears-in-a-sea-of-black-soft-light-in-a-world-of-darkness/) [Nicole Gentile](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/nicole-gentile/) [Browse all 8,219 Darkness quotes ](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/darkness/) ```json { "@context": "https://schema.org", "@graph": [ { "@type": "Quotation", "text": "“Quiet friend who has come so far, feel how your breathing makes more space around you. Let this darkness be a bell tower and you the bell. As you ring, what batters you becomes your strength. Move back and forth into the change. What is it like, such intensity of pain? If the drink is bitter, turn yourself to wine. In this uncontainable night, be the mystery at the crossroads of your senses, the meaning discovered there. And if the world has ceased to hear you, say to the silent earth: I flow. 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