Ty's Essay Yay! 2nd Essay post!

The not too different quote relationship
An Essay based on the relationship between a quote
By the German poet Rilke and a quote by N. Mandela
By Ty LeVarge

An interesting relationship of two quotes, seemingly based on two different objectives, is not too different after taking a second look. The quote that I had chosen to pick was, “Education Is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world.” by Nelson Mandela in which I had to compare to a quote by the German poet Rilke. This was a quote that struck me like a bolt of lightning and made me think deeply about all of the possible meanings that could be similar to the quote by Rilke and I decided that the quote by Mandela had properties that are parallel to the Rilke quote. I was able to uncover a significant meaning which was that Rilke is telling the young poet to wait for the answers to his questions to come to him on their own and that time is the best way to answer all questions. This is what I think the main theme that Rilke is trying to describe to the young poet and what he should do when he has questions that he feels need to be answered.

The quote by Mandela is one that would stick out of the crowd and would really glow in the dark when read. The main theme that Mandela is saying in this short quote is that education is a powerful weapon that can be reached and used at your fingertips. Education could be used to make you be successful in life to make you have a good job to have a good family and to have a good home. It can also be used to know about something more than others and you could also be a star in game shows too. Another superb meaning is really in the quote itself, and that is that Education has the possibility to change the world and how the human race behaves. Education can aid you in making a great invention that could, for example, make objects hover and go at the speed of light. Your knowledge could also be used to change the way things look such as change the color of an object in seconds or even make it invisible. Lastly, education would make you smarter than some other people in some different situations such as your education in writing poems may make your poem be in the top five in a poem writing contest. A person that has had education but not as good as yours may not be as smart as you but they could still make changes to the world. However, because you have had a better education you have the possibility to impact the world in a much larger degree. The main point of the quote by Mandela is that everyone can change the world but the ones with more powerful education will make a bigger impact on the world.

The quote by Rilke has a meaning to it which is to wait for answers to come for the questions that are beyond your reach because eventually in time the answers will come. Rilke’s hidden meaning, to let all questions wait until the time is right for the answers to appear, has its own meanings as well. Rilke is saying that there is no need to rush the answers that cannot be found right off the bat but to wait until they find you. The answers that cannot be found can only be discovered through patience and time only then would the answers be seen. Sometimes I think that waiting is the best way to answer difficult questions and that may be what Rilke is trying to say to the poet. Sometimes the answers would just come randomly later and much easier and would make you think, “Oh now I remember the answer to that question!” Also, you may want to seek out the answers for that question after the initial wondering of the question which would make you want to wait to see if any other possibilities that could arise. It is also possible that another point that Rilke is trying to say is that the young poet may understand his questions more if he was to wait a while to come up with the answer. For example, say that when you were 14 years old, you wondered what cavemen looked like back in the prehistoric age, and you pondered the question for hours but couldn’t find out the answer. Then, after years of high school and college you are able to view an approximate animation of what cavemen looked like back then and since you studied them, you now understand all about them rather than back when you didn’t know much about them. All of Rilke’s meanings all have some form of importance that holds his quote together and keeps it solid to be able to understand all concepts in the quote.

Rilke’s quote and Mandela’s quote are not that different if you were to think about them side by side they are not as different as you think just by looking at their main points. I would almost think of the quotes as brothers that are very much alike and are almost describing the same point. One example would be that Mandela’s quote about education seems to tie in with Rilke’s quote because Education is about understanding a subject whereas you would understand a question by learning about it and waiting for the final result or answer to finally reach you. This is a good example of how these two quotes would relate to each other and also goes to show that an answer will reveal itself if you are patient. Mainly what I think these quotes mean is tat it is wise to wait and learn about your question before attempting to figure out the answer.