Francesca Clotilde

“I really must become a bit simpler. Let myself live a bit more. Not always insist on the results straight away. I know what the remedy is, though: just to crouch huddled up on the ground in a corner and listen to what is going on inside me. Thinking gets you nowhere. It may be a fine and noble aid in academic studies, but you can't think your way out of emotional difficulties. That takes something altogether different. You have to make yourself passive then, and just listen. Reestablish contact with a slice of eternity.”
― Etty Hillesum, An Interrupted Life: The Diaries, 1941-1943; and Letters from Westerbork

“A desire to kneel down sometimes pulses through my body, or rather it is as if my body has been meant and made for the act of kneeling. Sometimes, in moments of deep gratitude, kneeling down becomes an overwhelming urge, head deeply bowed, hands before my face.”
― Etty Hillesum

“Many who are indignant about injustices are only indignant because the injustices are being inflicted on them. Their indignation is skin-deep.”
― Etty Hillesum, An Interrupted Life: The Diaries, 1941-1943; and Letters from Westerbork

“Che cos'è l'insonnia se non la maniaca ostinazione della nostra mente a fabbricare pensieri, ragionamenti, sillogismi e definizioni tutte sue, il suo rifiuto di abdicare di fronte alla divina incoscienza degli occhi chiusi o alla saggia follia dei sogni? L'uomo che non dorme - da qualche mese a questa parte ho fin troppe occasioni di constatarlo su me stesso - si rifiuta più o meno consapevolmente di affidarsi al flusso delle cose.”
― Marguerite Yourcenar, Memorie di Adriano: La voce dell'imperatore