Etty Hillesum Quotes - Page 2

Quotes about:

• Each of us must turn inward and destroy in himself all that he thinks he ought to destroy in others.

  Etty Hillesum

  Thinking, Inward, Turns

  Etty Hillesum, K. A. D. Smelik, Arnold Pomerans (2002). “Etty: The Letters and Diaries of Etty Hillesum, 1941-1943”, p.529, Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing

  59 Copy quote

• There are moments when I feel like giving up or giving in, but I soon rally again and do my duty as I see it: to keep the spark of life inside me ablaze.

  Etty Hillesum

  Determination, Giving Up, Persistence

  Etty Hillesum, K. A. D. Smelik, Arnold Pomerans (2002). “Etty: The Letters and Diaries of Etty Hillesum, 1941-1943”, p.498, Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing

  44 Copy quote

• If one burdens the future with one's worries, it cannot grow organically. I am filled with confidence, not that I shall succeed in worldly things, but that even when things go badly for me I shall still find life good and worth living.

  Etty Hillesum

  Confidence, Good Life, Worry

  Etty Hillesum (1983). “An interrupted life: the diaries of Etty Hillesum, 1941-1943”, Lester & Orpen Dennys

  20 Copy quote

• Most people write off their longing for friends and family as so many losses in their lives, when they should count the fact that their heart is able to long so hard and to love so much as among their greatest blessings.

  Etty Hillesum

  Writing, Heart, Loss

  Etty Hillesum, K. A. D. Smelik, Arnold Pomerans (2002). “Etty: The Letters and Diaries of Etty Hillesum, 1941-1943”, p.637, Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing

  22 Copy quote

• I don’t want to be anything special. I only want to try to be true to that in me which seeks to fulfill its promise.

  Etty Hillesum

  Promise, Special, Trying

  Etty Hillesum, K. A. D. Smelik, Arnold Pomerans (2002). “Etty: The Letters and Diaries of Etty Hillesum, 1941-1943”, p.154, Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing

  46 Copy quote

• I do believe it is possible to create, even without ever writing a word or painting a picture, by simply molding one’s inner life. And that too is a deed.

  Etty Hillesum

  Believe, Creativity, Writing

  Etty Hillesum, K. A. D. Smelik, Arnold Pomerans (2002). “Etty: The Letters and Diaries of Etty Hillesum, 1941-1943”, p.318, Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing

  19 Copy quote

• The externals are simply so many props; everything we need is within us.

  Etty Hillesum

  Needs, Props

  Etty Hillesum, K. A. D. Smelik, Arnold Pomerans (2002). “Etty: The Letters and Diaries of Etty Hillesum, 1941-1943”, p.463, Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing

  13 Copy quote

• I don't think I have nerves of steel, far from it, but I can certainly stand up to things. I am not afraid to look suffering straight in the eyes.

  Etty Hillesum

  Eye, Thinking, Suffering

  Etty Hillesum, K. A. D. Smelik, Arnold Pomerans (2002). “Etty: The Letters and Diaries of Etty Hillesum, 1941-1943”, p.545, Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing

  33 Copy quote

• Suffering has always been with us; does it really matter in what form it comes? All that matters is how we bear it and how we fit it into our lives.

  Etty Hillesum

  Suffering, Doe, Matter

  Etty Hillesum, K. A. D. Smelik, Arnold Pomerans (2002). “Etty: The Letters and Diaries of Etty Hillesum, 1941-1943”, p.460, Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing

  15 Copy quote

• Every day I shall put my papers in order and every day I shall say farewell. And the real farewell, when it comes, will only be a small outward confirmation of what has been accomplished within me from day to day.

  Etty Hillesum

  Love, Real, Farewell

  27 Copy quote

• And I believe that I will never be able to hate any human being for his so-called 'wickedness,' that I shall only hate the evil that is within me, though hate is perhaps putting it too strongly even then. In any case, we cannot be lax enough in what we demand of others and strict enough in what we demand of ourselves.

  Etty Hillesum

  Hate, Believe, Evil

  Etty Hillesum, K. A. D. Smelik, Arnold Pomerans (2002). “Etty: The Letters and Diaries of Etty Hillesum, 1941-1943”, p.307, Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing

  26 Copy quote

• If one finds the strength to deal with small things, one finds it to deal with the large ones as well.

  Etty Hillesum

  Creativity, Deals, Wells

  15 Copy quote

• That fear of missing out on things makes you miss out on everything.

  Etty Hillesum

  Missing, Missing Out

  Etty Hillesum, K. A. D. Smelik, Arnold Pomerans (2002). “Etty: The Letters and Diaries of Etty Hillesum, 1941-1943”, p.146, Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing

  14 Copy quote

• Sometimes my day is crammed full of people and talk and yet I have the feeling of living in utter peace and quiet. And the tree outside my window, in the evenings, is a greater experience than all those people put together.

  Etty Hillesum

  People, Tree, Feelings

  Etty Hillesum, K. A. D. Smelik, Arnold Pomerans (2002). “Etty: The Letters and Diaries of Etty Hillesum, 1941-1943”, p.305, Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing

  19 Copy quote

• To live fully, outwardly and inwardly, not to ignore the external reality for the sake of the inner life, or the reverse, that's quite a task

  Etty Hillesum

  Reality, Tasks, Sake

  Etty Hillesum, K. A. D. Smelik, Arnold Pomerans (2002). “Etty: The Letters and Diaries of Etty Hillesum, 1941-1943”, p.53, Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing

  14 Copy quote

• Sometimes I feel that every word spoken and every gesture made merely serve to exacerbate misunderstandings. Then what I would really like is to escape into a great silence and impose that silence on everyone else.

  Etty Hillesum

  Silence, Gestures, Sometimes

  Etty Hillesum, K. A. D. Smelik, Arnold Pomerans (2002). “Etty: The Letters and Diaries of Etty Hillesum, 1941-1943”, p.131, Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing

  20 Copy quote

• Sometimes I long for a convent cell, with the sublime wisdom of centuries set out on bookshelves all along the wall and a view across the cornfields--there must be cornfields and they must wave in the breeze--and there I would immerse myself in the wisdom of the ages and in myself. Then I might perhaps find peace and clarity. But that would be no great feat. It is right here, in this very place, in the here and the now, that I must find them.

  Etty Hillesum

  Wall, Views, Cells

  Etty Hillesum, K. A. D. Smelik, Arnold Pomerans (2002). “Etty: The Letters and Diaries of Etty Hillesum, 1941-1943”, p.71, Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing

  20 Copy quote

• Every word born of an inner necessity - writing must never be anything else.

  Etty Hillesum

  Writing, Born

  Etty Hillesum, K. A. D. Smelik, Arnold Pomerans (2002). “Etty: The Letters and Diaries of Etty Hillesum, 1941-1943”, p.341, Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing

  17 Copy quote

• I know and share the many sorrows a human being can experience, but I do not cling to them; they pass through me, like life itself, as a broad eternal stream...and life continues.

  Etty Hillesum

  Sorrow, Share, Broads

  Etty Hillesum, K. A. D. Smelik, Arnold Pomerans (2002). “Etty: The Letters and Diaries of Etty Hillesum, 1941-1943”, p.308, Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing

  10 Copy quote

• Life is good, after all...and that's what stays with me, even now, even when I'm about to be packed off to Poland.

  Etty Hillesum

  Life, Poland, Stay With Me

  14 Copy quote

• Sometimes I try my hand at turning out small profundities and uncertain short stories, but I always end up with just one single word: God.

  Etty Hillesum

  God, Hands, Trying

  Etty Hillesum, K. A. D. Smelik, Arnold Pomerans (2002). “Etty: The Letters and Diaries of Etty Hillesum, 1941-1943”, p.640, Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing

  12 Copy quote

• Slowly but surely I have been soaking Rilke up these last few months: the man, his work and his life. And that is probably the only right way with literature, with study, with people or with anything else: to let it all soak in, to let it all mature slowly inside you until it has become a part of yourself. That, too, is a growing process. Everything is a growing process. And in between, emotions and sensations that strike you like lightning. But still the most important thing is the organic process of growing.

  Etty Hillesum

  Men, People, Important

  Etty Hillesum (1983). “An interrupted life: the diaries of Etty Hillesum, 1941-1943”, Lester & Orpen Dennys

  8 Copy quote

• The fact is I don't lead a simple enough inner life. I indulge in excesses, bacchanalia of the spirit. Perhaps I identify too much with everything I read and study. Someone like Dostoevsky still shatters me.

  Etty Hillesum

  Simple, Indulge In, Excess

  Etty Hillesum, K. A. D. Smelik, Arnold Pomerans (2002). “Etty: The Letters and Diaries of Etty Hillesum, 1941-1943”, p.93, Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing

  15 Copy quote

• One must also accept that one has 'uncreative' moments. The more honestly one can accept that, the quicker these moments will pass.

  Etty Hillesum

  Moments, Accepting, Honestly

  Etty Hillesum, K. A. D. Smelik, Arnold Pomerans (2002). “Etty: The Letters and Diaries of Etty Hillesum, 1941-1943”, p.549, Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing

  20 Copy quote

• Our desire must be like a slow and stately ship, sailing across endless oceans, never in search of safe anchorage. Then suddenly, unexpectedly, it will find mooring for a moment.

  Etty Hillesum

  Ocean, Sailing, Desire

  Etty Hillesum, K. A. D. Smelik, Arnold Pomerans (2002). “Etty: The Letters and Diaries of Etty Hillesum, 1941-1943”, p.288, Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing

  12 Copy quote

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