Henri J. M. Nouwen
The movement from loneliness to solitude should lead to a gradual conversion from an anxious reaction to a loving response. — Henri J. M. Nouwen, Reaching Out: The Three Movements of the Spiritual Life ( Doubleday, 1975)
Category: Dutch Literature
Vincent van Gogh
So instead of giving in to despair I chose active melancholy, in so far as I was capable of activity, in other words I chose the kind of melancholy that hopes, that strives and that seeks, in preference to the melancholy that despairs numbly and in distress. — Vincent van Gogh, The Letters of Vincent… Continue reading Vincent van Gogh
Etty Hillesum
We have to become as simple and as wordless as the growing corn or the falling rain. We must just be. — Etty Hillesum, An Interrupted Life: The Diaries, 1941-1943; and Letters from Westerbork. (Picador; unknown edition, November 15, 1996)
Etty Hillesum
Everything is chance, or nothing is chance. If I believed the first, I would be unable to live on, but I am not yet fully convinced of the second. ” — Etty Hillesum, An Interrupted Life: The Diaries and Letters of Etty Hillesum. (Picador November 15, 1996)
The Vale of Soul-Making 