Quotations

"How can we both see the dark reality of the world, and yet exert our imagination to envision an alternative of flourishing, justice, freedom, and love—and even walk with a spring along the barbed wire?"

— Etty Hillesum, Dutch author of confessional letters, born 1914

"At night, as I lay in the camp on my plank bed, I was sometimes filled with an infinite tenderness and I prayed, 'Let me be the thinking heart of these barracks.' That is what I want to be. The thinking heart of a whole concentration camp."

— Etty Hillesum, Dutch author of confessional letters, born 1914

"Ought we not, from time to time, open ourselves up to cosmic sadness? Give your sorrow all the space and shelter in yourself that is its due, for if everyone bears his grief honestly and courageously, the sorrow that now fills the world will abate. But if you do not clear a decent shelter for your sorrow, and instead reserve most of the space inside you for hatred and thoughts of revenge-from which new sorrows will be born for others-then sorrow will never cease in this world and will multiply."

— Etty Hillesum, Dutch author of confessional letters, born 1914

"It is the only thing we can do. Each of us must turn inward and destroy in himself all that he thinks he ought to destroy in others. And remember that every atom of hate that we add to this world makes it sill more inhospitable."

— Etty Hillesum, Dutch author of confessional letters, born 1914

"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, Dutch author of confessional letters, born 1914

"A large group of us were crowded into the Gestapo hall, and at that moment the circumstances of all our lives were the same. All of us occupied the same space, the men behind the desk no less than those about to be questioned. What distinguished each of us was only our inner attitude."

— Etty Hillesum, Dutch author of confessional letters, born 1914

"Anyone who imagines that bliss is normal in life is going to waste a lot of time running around shouting that he's been robbed. The fact that most putts don't drop, most beef is tough, most children grow up to be just people, most successful marriages require a high degree of mutual toleration, and most lobs are more often dull than otherwise. Life is like an old-time rail journey—delays, sidetracks, smoke, dust, cinders, and jolts, interspersed only occasionally with beautiful vistas and thrilling bursts of speed. The trick is to thank god for letting you have the ride."

— Gordon B. Hinckley, American religious leader, born 1910

"People who make music together cannot be enemies, at least while the music lasts."

— Paul Hindemith, German conductor, born 1895

"My God, how can anyone ever be a master of music?"

— Paul Hindemith, German conductor, born 1895

"He who cannot dance claims the floor is uneven."

— Hindu saying

"Photography can light-up darkness and expose ignorance."

— Lewis Hine, American photographer, born 1874

"Playing Serena, it always felt like playing a steamroller. No subtlety, no finesse, just raw, loud power. To respect this style of play was always a bit tough for me, but of course I had to, because the rules of tennis don't state that having a beautiful game is required to become No. 1."

— Martina Hingis, Swiss tennis player, born 1980

"True poetic practice implies a mind so miraculously attuned and illuminated that it can form words, by a chain of more-than coincidences, into a living entity."

— Edward Hirsch, American poet, born 1950

"The idea of how to read a poem is based on the idea that poetry needs you as a reader. That the experience of poetry, the meaning in poetry, is a kind of circuit that takes place between a poet, a poem and a reader, and that meaning doesn't exist or inhere in poems alone."

— Edward Hirsch, American poet, born 1950