"As long as you have not grasped that you have to die to grow, you are a troubled guest on the dark earth."
— Mircea Eliade

January 1, 1970

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Added on April 10, 2026
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Essayists from RomaniaUniversity of Chicago facultyPeople from BucharestHistorians from RomaniaPhilosophers from Romania
Original Language: English

Sources

Attributed to Eliade in The Little Book of Romanian Wisdom (2011) edited by Diana Doroftei and Matthew Cross, this appears to be a translation of the last line of the poem "The Holy Longing" by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, which, as translated by Robert Bly reads: And so long as you haven't experienced this: to die and so to grow, you are only a troubled guest on the dark earth.