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Etty Hillesum

Etty Hillesum Quotes

Woman of letters

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Famous Etty Hillesum 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.”

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Book:Etty: The Letters and Diaries of Etty Hillesum, 1941-1943
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“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.”

BelieveHumansEnoughAbleHateEvilI BelieveHuman BeingsCasesDemandStrictWickednessLax
Book:Etty: The Letters and Diaries of Etty Hillesum, 1941-1943
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“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.”

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