What is needed is, in the end, simply this: solitude, great inner solitude.

But your solitude will be a support and a home for you, even in the midst of very unfamiliar circumstances, and from it you will find all your paths.

So you mustn't be frightened, dear Mr. Kappus, if a sadness rises in front of you, larger than any you have ever seen; if an anxiety - like light and cloud-shadows, moves over your hands and everything you do. You must realize that something is happening to you, that life has not forgotten you, that it holds you in the palm of its hand and will not let you fall.

And you should not let yourself be confused in your solitude by the fact that there is something in you that wants to move out of it.

He does not always remain bent over the pages; he often leans back and closes his eyes over a line he has been reading again, and its meaning spreads through his blood.

Go into yourself. Dig into yourself for a deep answer

This is what the things can teach us: to fall, patiently to trust our heaviness. Even a bird has to do that before he can fly.