“Isn't it bewildering … that everything is so beautiful, despite all the horrors that exist?”

— Sophie Scholl

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.

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update June 23, 2024. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "Isn't it bewildering … that everything is so beautiful, despite all the horrors that exist?" by Sophie Scholl?

Sophie Scholl17

White Rose member 1921–1943

Related quotes

“Despite everything, life is full of beauty and meaning.”

Etty Hillesum (1914–1943) Jewish diarist

Source: Lettres De Westerbork

“After all, one knows one's weak points so well, that it's rather bewildering to have the critics overlook them & invent others that (one is fairly sure) don't exist — or exist in a less measure.”

Edith Wharton (1862–1937) American novelist, short story writer, designer

Letter to Robert Grant (19 November 1907)

“How terrible this darkness was, how bewildering, and yet mysteriously beautiful!”

Stefan Zweig (1881–1942) Austrian writer

Source: The Burning Secret and other stories

“It isn't a matter of black is beautiful as much as it is white is not all that's beautiful.”

Bill Cosby (1937) American actor, comedian, author, producer, musician, activist

“Time exists in order that everything doesn’t happen all at once…and space exists so that it doesn’t all happen to you.”

Susan Sontag (1933–2004) American writer and filmmaker, professor, and activist

Source: At the Same Time: Essays and Speeches

“The lion laying with the lamb is the idea that is either projected back in time, saying that there was a time, or maybe that there will be a time when the horrors of life are no longer necessary for life itself to exist. And the horrors of life are of course that everything eats everything else, and that everything dies, and that everything is born, and that the whole place is a charnal house. It's a catastrophe from beginning to end. This is the vision of it being other than that. There's a strong idea that human beings can interact with reality in such a way so that the tragic and evil elements of it can be mitigated, so that we can move closer to a state of being where we have the benefits of existence without the catastrophe that seems to go along with it.”

Jordan Peterson (1962) Canadian clinical psychologist, cultural critic, and professor of psychology

Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ifi5KkXig3s "Biblical Series IV: Adam and Eve: Self-Consciousness, Evil, and Death"

“Despite everything else that’s facing us, and despite all the bleak news about people not believing and everything, it’s obvious that people do believe. The people of the archdiocese are people of wonderful faith.”

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)