“Despite everything, life is full of beauty and meaning.”
Source: Lettres De Westerbork
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Etty Hillesum28
Jewish diarist 1914–1943Related quotes
“Isn't it bewildering … that everything is so beautiful, despite all the horrors that exist?”
Sophie Scholl (1921–1943) White Rose member
As quoted in O<sub>2</sub> : Breathing New Life Into Faith (2008) by Richard Dahlstrom, p. 223; this source is disputed as it does not cite an original document for the quote.
Disputed
Context: Isn't it bewildering … that everything is so beautiful, despite all the horrors that exist? Lately I've noticed something grand and mysterious peering into my sheer joy in all that is lovely — the sense of a Creator whom innocent creation worships with its beauty. Only man can be hateful or ugly, because he possesses a free will to cut himself off from the chorus of praise. It often seems that he will succeed in drowning out this chorus with his cannon thunder, curses, and blasphemy. But it has become clear to me this spring that he cannot. And so I must try to throw myself on the side of the victor.
Halldór Laxness (1902–1998) Icelandic author
Pétur Þríhross
Heimsljós (World Light) (1940), Book Two: The Palace of the Summerland
“Enlightenment means taking full responsibility for your life.”
William Blake (1757–1827) English Romantic poet and artist
“Life is full of disappointments. And by "disappointments" I mean "people."”
Kambri Crews (1971) American storyteller
[11 February 2011, http://www.facebook.com/KambriCrews/posts/162460473805347, Kambri Crews Fan Page]
Leon Trotsky (1879–1940) Marxist revolutionary from Russia
Trotsky's Testament (1940)
Context: Natasha has just come up to the window from the courtyard and opened it wider so that the air may enter more freely into my room. I can see the bright green strip of grass beneath the wall, and the clear blue sky above the wall, and sunlight everywhere. Life is beautiful. Let the future generations cleanse it of all evil, oppression and violence, and enjoy it to the full.
Walter Kaufmann (1921–1980) American philosopher
Time is an Artist (1978) Epilogue : Old is Beautiful http://taimur.sarangi.info/text/kaufmann_time.htm <br class="br">Context: Of course, not everything old is beautiful, any more than everything black, or everything white, or everything young. But the notion that old means ugly is every bit as harmful as the prejudice that black is ugly. In one way it is even more pernicious.<br>The notion that only what is new and young is beautiful poisons our relationship to the past and to our own future. It keeps us from understanding our roots and the greatest works of our culture and other cultures. It also makes us dread what lies ahead of us and leads many to shirk reality.
Edmund Whalen (1958) roman-catholic clergyman
Source: Bishop-elect Edmund J. Whalen Fluently Reaches the Faithful https://cny.org/stories/bishop-elect-edmund-j-whalen-fluently-reaches-the-faithful,20259 (December 4, 2019)