Frases de Etty Hillesum

„À pessoa que descansa em si não lhe interessa o tempo; a evolução não deve levar o tempo em conta.“

—  Etty Hillesum

Etty

„Acredito verdadeiramente que é possível criar, mesmo sem jamais ter escrito uma palavra ou pintando um quadro, apenas moldando nossa vida interior. E isso também é uma proeza.“

—  Etty Hillesum

But I do believe that it is possible to create, even without ever writing a word or painting a picture, by simply moulding one's inner life. And that too is a deed.
"An interrupted life: the diaries of Etty Hillesum, 1941-1943"‎ - Página 87, Pantheon Books, 1983, ISBN 0394532171, 9780394532172, 226 páginas

„Foi novamente como se a Vida, com todos os seus segredos, estivesse próxima de mim, como se eu a pudesse tocar… E ali sentia-me imensamente segura e protegida. E pensei: «Como isto é est ranho. É guerra. Há campos de concentração. Pequenas crueldades amontoam-se por cima de pequenas crueldades. Quando caminho pelas ruas, sei que, em muitas das casas por onde passo, há ali um filho preso, e ali um pai refém, e ali têm de suportar a condenação à morte de um rapaz de dezoito anos.» E estas ruas e casas ficam perto da minha própria casa.
Sei do grande sofrimento humano que se vai acumulando, sei das perseguições e da opressão… Sei de tudo isso e continuo a enfrentar cada pedaço de realidade que se me impõe. E num momento inesperado, abandonada a mim própria — encontro-me de repente encostada ao pei to nu da Vida e os braços dela são muito macios e envolvem-me, e nem sequer consigo descrever o bater do seu coração: tão fiel como se nunca mais findasse…“

—  Etty Hillesum

Diário 1941-1943

„Each of us must turn inward and destroy in himself all that he thinks he ought to destroy in others.“

—  Etty Hillesum

„My ideas hang on me like outsize clothes into which I still have to grow. My mind lags behind my intuition.“

—  Etty Hillesum

„I 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.“

—  Etty Hillesum

„The inner world is as real as the outer world. One ought to be conscious of that. It, too, has its landscape, contours, possibilities, its boundless regions.“

—  Etty Hillesum

„I am ready for everything, for anywhere on this earth, wherever God may send me, and I am ready to bear witness in any situation and unto death that life is beautiful and meaningful and that it is not God’s fault that things are as they are at present, but our own.“

—  Etty Hillesum

„That is probably the hardest thing a person can learn, as I so often find in others (and in myself as well in the past) to forgive one’s own mistakes and lapses.“

—  Etty Hillesum

„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.“

—  Etty Hillesum

„The sky is full of birds, the purple lupins stand up so regally and peacefully, two little old women have sat down on the box for a chat, the sun is shining on my face — and right before our eyes, mass murder. The whole thing is simply beyond comprehension.“

—  Etty Hillesum

8 June 1943, p. 602

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

—  Etty Hillesum

„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.“

—  Etty Hillesum

„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

„Despite everything, life is full of beauty and meaning.“

—  Etty Hillesum

Fonte: Lettres De Westerbork

„We have to fight them daily, like fleas, those many small worries about the morrow, for they sap our energies.“

—  Etty Hillesum

„It is sometimes hard to take in and comprehend, oh God, what those created in Your likeness do to each other in these disjointed days. But I no longer shut myself away in my room, God; I try to look things straight in the face, even the worst crimes, and to discover the small, naked human being amid the monstrous wreckage caused by man’s senseless deeds.“

—  Etty Hillesum

„Through me course wide rivers and in me rise tall mountains. And beyond the thickets of my agitation and confusion there stretch the wide plains of my peace and surrender. All landscapes are within me. And there is room for everything. The earth is in me, and the sky. And I well know that something like hell can also be in one, though I no longer experience it in myself, but I can still feel it in others with great intensity. And that is as it should be, or else I might grow too complacent.“

—  Etty Hillesum

„And if God does not help me to go on, then I shall have to help God. — The surface of the earth is gradually turning into one great prison camp, and soon there will be nobody left outside. … I don't fool myself about the real state of affairs, and I've even dropped the pretense that I'm out to help others. I shall merely try to help God as best I can, and if I succeed in doing that, then I shall be of use to others as well. But I mustn't have heroic illusions about that either.“

—  Etty Hillesum

11 July 1942, p. 484-85