Sometimes the most important thing in a whole day is the rest we take between two deep breaths, or the turning inwards in prayer for five short minutes. Etty Hillesum More Quotes by Etty Hillesum More Quotes From Etty Hillesum 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 loss heart writing A large group of us were crowded into the Gestapo hall, and at that moment the circumstances of all our lives were the same. All of us occupied the same space, the men behind the desk no less than those about to be questioned. What distinguished each of us was only our inner attitude. Etty Hillesum attitude men peace 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 persistence giving-up determination If one finds the strength to deal with small things, one finds it to deal with the large ones as well. Etty Hillesum deals wells creativity 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 special trying promise And now that I don't want to own anything any more and am free, now I suddenly own everything, now my inner riches are immeasurable. Etty Hillesum riches want 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 gestures silence sometimes I feel like a small battlefield in which the problems, or some of the problems, of our time are being fought out. All one can hope to do is keep oneself humbly available, to allow oneself to be a battlefield. After all, the problems must be accommodated, have somewhere to struggle and come to rest and we, poor little humans, must put our inner space at their service and not run away. Etty Hillesum struggle running inspirational Each of us must turn inward and destroy in himself all that he thinks he ought to destroy in others. Etty Hillesum inward turns thinking That fear of missing out on things makes you miss out on everything. Etty Hillesum missing-out missing The externals are simply so many props; everything we need is within us. Etty Hillesum props needs Become simple and live simply, not only within yourself but also in your everyday dealings. Don’t make ripples all around you, don’t try to be interesting, keep your distance, be honest, fight the desire to be thought fascinating by the outside world. Etty Hillesum distance fighting simple 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 evil believe That I should die next week, I would still be able to sit at my desk all week and study with perfect equanimity, for I know now that life and death make a meaningful whole. Etty Hillesum acceptance meaningful next-week 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 excess indulge-in simple 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 broads sorrow share When I pray, I never pray for myself, always for others, or else I hold a silly, naive, or deadly serious dialogue with what is deepest inside me, which for the sake of convenience I call God. Praying to God for something for yourself strikes me as being too childish for words. To pray for another's well-being is something I find childish as well; one should only pray that another should have enough strength to shoulder his burden. If you do that, you lend him some of your own strength. Etty Hillesum sake should-have silly 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 trying hands 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 matter doe 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 cells views
