Etty Hillesum Quotes

We are always in search of the redeeming formula, the crystallizing thought.

thoughts

We have to fight them daily, like fleas, those many small worries about the morrow, for they sap our energies.

worry

A desire to kneel down sometimes pulses through my body, or rather it is as if my body had been meant and made for the act of kneeling.

kneeling

But 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.

deeds

Whenever one tries too desperately to be physically close to some beloved person, whenever one throws all one has into one's longing for that person, one is really giving him short change. For one has no reserves left then for a true encounter.

We human beings cause monstrous conditions, but precisely because we cause them we soon learn to adapt ourselves to them.  Only if we become such that we can no longer adapt ourselves, only if, deep inside, we rebel against every kind of evil, will we be able to put a stop to it.

evil