Quotessence
Home / Books / Etty: The Letters and Diaries of Etty Hillesum, 1941-1943

Etty: The Letters and Diaries of Etty Hillesum, 1941-1943

Book by Etty Hillesum · 3 quotes · Sometimes, Moments, Feels

Filter quotes by topic

Etty: The Letters and Diaries of Etty Hillesum, 1941-1943 Quotes

“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. ... while everything within us does not yet scream out in protest, so long will we find ways of adapting ourselves, and the horrors will continue.”

“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.”