Rilke's insight into fear

Drawn by sympathetic notes in one of his poems, young people often wrote to Rilke with their problems and hopes. From 1903 to 1908 Rilke wrote a series of remarkable responses to a young would-be poet, on poetry and on surviving as a sensitive observer in a harsh world. This is one quote:

Perhaps all the dragons in our lives are princesses who are only waiting for us to act just once, with beauty and courage. Perhaps everything that frightens us is, in its deepest essence something helpless that needs our love.

 Letters to a Young Poet, Rainer Maria Rilke