How small that is, with which we wrestle,

what wrestles with us, how immense;

were we to let ourselves, the way things do,

be conquered thus by the great storm,—

we would become far-reaching and nameless.

What we triumph over is the Small,

and the success itself makes us petty.

The Eternal and Unexampled

will not be bent by us.

…growth is: to be the deeply defeated

by ever greater things.

Rilke, The Man Watching