# Quote — Rainer Maria Rilke, The Notebooks of Malte Laurids Brigge

> Is it possible that there are people who say "God" and suppose they mean something shared by all? — Only consider two schoolboys: one of them buys a knife, and the other buys an identical one on the same day. And a week later, they show each other the two knives, and they turn out to be only remotely similar, so differently have they been shaped by different hands. ... Is it possible to believe we could have a god without making use of him?

- Author: [Rainer Maria Rilke](https://www.leafyquotes.com/rainer-maria-rilke.md)
- Book: [The Notebooks of Malte Laurids Brigge](https://www.leafyquotes.com/rainer-maria-rilke/the-notebooks-of-malte-laurids-brigge.md)
- Page: 16
- Original (de): Ist es möglich, daß es Leute giebt, welche 'Gott' sagen und meinen, das wäre etwas Gemeinsames?—Und sieh nur zwei Schulkinder: Es kauft sich der eine ein Messer, und sein Nachbar kauft sich ein ganz gleiches am selben Tag. Und sie zeigen einander nach einer Woche die beiden Messer, und es ergiebt sich, daß sie sich nur noch ganz entfernt ähnlich sehen,—so verschieden haben sie sich in verschiedenen Händen entwickelt. ... Ist es möglich, zu glauben, man könne einen Gott haben, ohne ihn zu gebrauchen?
- Source: [Wikiquote](https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Rainer_Maria_Rilke#The_Notebooks_of_Malte_Laurids_Brigge_(1910)) ([CC BY-SA 4.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/))
- Quote page: https://www.leafyquotes.com/rainer-maria-rilke/the-notebooks-of-malte-laurids-brigge/is-it-possible

## More from this book

> A thought struck me abruptly: My God, you do exist, then. There are proofs of Your existence. I had forgotten them all, and never demanded any either, for what an overwhelming obligation would come with this certainty. And yet that is what is now being shown to me.

p. 135 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/rainer-maria-rilke/the-notebooks-of-malte-laurids-brigge/a-thought-struck.md)