Letters to a Young Poet by Ranier Maria Rilke

“With nothing can one approach a work of art so little as with critical words: they always come down to more or less happy misunderstandings.” So began Rilke’s first letter to a student who’d asked for advice. A quarter century later, in 1929, the student noted in his introduction for the publication of the ten letters Rilke sent him, “Where a great and unique man speaks, small men should keep silence.” In both men modesty burns brilliantly.