Be Defeated by Greater Things

By Rainer Maria Rilke

What we fight with is so small, and when we win, it makes us small. What we want is to be defeated, decisively, by successively greater things.

— Rainer Maria Rilke

Source

Rainer Maria Rilke, “The Man Watching” (Der Schauende), from The Book of Images (1901).

The poem references Jacob wrestling with the angel. Another translation reads: “Winning does not tempt that man. This is how he grows: by being defeated, decisively, by constantly greater beings.”

Background

I first found this via Tim O’Reilly’s essay “Work on Stuff that Matters” (2009).

Related Essays

Head first, then feet, then heart

What could we be great at? What are we willing to take responsibility for? Combine those two things and maybe we can change the world!