Inspirational Quotations

Inspirational Quotes by Etty Hillesum (Jewish Diarist)

Esther “Etty” Hillesum (1914–43) was a Dutch intellectual and holocaust diarist. A young Jewish woman living in Amsterdam, she chose not to go into hiding or try to dodge capture by the Nazis but to share the fate of her people and die with dignity.

Born in Middelburg, Holland, Hillesum was the daughter of a scholarly headmaster. She graduated from the municipal gymnasium (1932,) studied law at the University of Amsterdam, attended the Faculty of Slavonic Languages, and started to study psychology. Hillesum had serious literary ambitions, and she was increasingly drawn to poetry, for which she had lofty aspirations.

Hillesum was the author of confessional letters and diaries, which express her religious awakening and the persecutions of Amsterdam’s Jews during the German occupation. Her journals, published as An Interrupted Life (1981,) have become a vade mecum for bibliophiles worldwide. She also wrote The Thinking Heart of the Barracks (1982; also Etty Hillesum: Letters from Westerbork, 1986.)

Hillesum was deported in 1943 and killed in Auschwitz concentration camp. Ghent University opened the Etty Hillesum Research Centre (EHOC) in 2006.

More: Wikipedia • READ: Works by Etty Hillesum

If one finds the strength to deal with small things, one finds it to deal with the large ones as well.
—Etty Hillesum
Topics: Creativity

Every word born of an inner necessity – writing must never be anything else.
—Etty Hillesum
Topics: Writing

One must marry one’s feelings to one’s beliefs and ideas. That is probably the only way to achieve a measure of harmony in one’s life.
—Etty Hillesum
Topics: Harmony, Achievement, Success & Failure, Accomplishment

We have to fight them daily, like fleas, those many small worries about the morrow, for they sap our energies.
—Etty Hillesum
Topics: Worry

I think what weakens people most is fear of wasting their strength.
—Etty Hillesum
Topics: Strength

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
Topics: Stress, Prayer

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
Topics: Peace

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
Topics: Creativity

Wondering Whom to Read Next?

Comments

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *