Once the realization is accepted that even between the closest human beings infinite distances continue to exist, a wonderful living side by side can grow up, if they succeed in loving the distance between them which makes it possible for each to see the other whole against the sky.

This sentence is from Rainer Maria Rilke’s epistolary work commonly known in English as *Letters to a Young Poet*. The letters were written in the early 1900s (1903–1908) in response to the aspiring writer Franz Xaver Kappus, who sought Rilke’s guidance on art and life. In the correspondence, Rilke repeatedly urges inwardness, patience, and respect for solitude—not only for creative work but also for relationships. The remark about “infinite distances” appears in the portion where Rilke reflects on love and marriage, arguing that genuine intimacy depends on honoring the other person’s separateness rather than trying to abolish it.

Rilke proposes that even the most intimate relationships cannot erase the fundamental otherness of another person. Instead of treating that gap as a failure of closeness, he reframes it as the condition that makes mature love possible: if partners accept distance, they can live “side by side” without possession or fusion. To “love the distance” means to protect each other’s inner life—allowing each person to remain whole, distinct, and visible in their full outline (“against the sky”). The image suggests a kind of reverent seeing: separation provides perspective, and perspective enables a deeper, less coercive form of companionship.

• “Once the realization is accepted that even between the closest human beings infinite distances exist, a wonderful living side by side can grow…”
• “…if they succeed in loving the distance between them which makes it possible for each to see the other whole against the sky.”
• “A wonderful living side by side can grow up, if they succeed in loving the distance between them…”