I do believe it is possible to create, even without ever writing a word or painting a picture, by simply molding oneโs inner life. And that too is a deed.
Etty HillesumI know and share the many sorrows a human being can experience, but I do not cling to them; they pass through me, like life itself, as a broad eternal stream...and life continues.
Etty HillesumI don't think I have nerves of steel, far from it, but I can certainly stand up to things. I am not afraid to look suffering straight in the eyes.
Etty HillesumSometimes I try my hand at turning out small profundities and uncertain short stories, but I always end up with just one single word: God.
Etty HillesumWe have to fight them daily, lake fleas, those many small worries about the morrow, for they sap our energies.
Etty HillesumI 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.
Etty Hillesum