That fear of missing out on things makes you miss out on everything.
ETTY HILLESUMI 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.
More Etty Hillesum Quotes
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To live fully, outwardly and inwardly, not to ignore the external reality for the sake of the inner life, or the reverse, that’s quite a task.
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Each of us must turn inward and destroy in himself all that he thinks he ought to destroy in others.
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We should be willing to act as a balm for all wounds.
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Here, beside this great black surface that is my desk, I feel as though I am on a desert island.
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If one finds the strength to deal with small things, one finds it to deal with the large ones as well.
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The more peace there is in us, the more peace there will be in our troubled world.
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Every day I shall put my papers in order and every day I shall say farewell. And the real farewell, when it comes, will only be a small outward confirmation of what has been accomplished within me from day to day.
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Despite everything, life is full of beauty and meaning.
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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.
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Sometimes my day is crammed full of people and talk and yet I have the feeling of living in utter peace and quiet. And the tree outside my window, in the evenings, is a greater experience than all those people put together.
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Life is good, after all…and that’s what stays with me, even now, even when I’m about to be packed off to Poland.
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I really see no other solution than to turn inwards and to root out all the rottenness there. I no longer believe that we can change anything in the world until we first change ourselves. And that seems to me the only lesson to be learned.
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We have to fight them daily, lake fleas, those many small worries about the morrow, for they sap our energies.
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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.
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The externals are simply so many props; everything we need is within us.
ETTY HILLESUM