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Etty Hillesum

Etty Hillesum Quotes

Woman of letters

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Famous Etty Hillesum Quotes

“I never worry about tomorrow. For instance I know I am going to have to leave here very soon, and I haven't the faintest idea where I'll end up or how I shall earn my living, but I know that something will turn up. 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.”

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Book:An Interrupted Life: The Diaries, 1941-1943; and Letters from Westerbork
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“Give your sorrow all the space and shelter in yourself that is its due, for if everyone bears grief honestly and courageously, the sorrow that now fills the world will abate. But if you do instead reserve most of the space inside you for hatred and thoughts of revenge-from which new sorrows will be born for others-then sorrow will never cease in this world. And if you have given sorrow the space it demands, then you may truly say: life is beautiful and so rich.”

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Author:Etty Hillesum
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“Ultimately, we have just one moral duty: to reclaim large areas of peace in ourselves, more and more peace, and to reflect it towards others. And the more peace there is in us, the more peace there will be in our troubled world.”

WorldPeaceMoralDutyAreasJust OneBeing At PeaceAchieving PeaceTrue PeaceMoral DutyPeace With Others
Book:An Interrupted Life: The Diaries of Etty Hillesum, 1941-1943
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“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.”

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