"I think what weakens people most is fear of wasting their strength."

Power

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Insight & Reflection

Words carry weight, and Etty Hillesum's insight into power is no exception. It serves as a gentle reminder that amidst the chaos of modern life, timeless wisdom still holds the power to guide our decisions and clarify our values.

About Etty Hillesum

Esther "Etty" Hillesum was a Dutch Jewish author of confessional letters and diaries which describe both her religious awakening and the persecutions of Jewish people in Amsterdam during the German occupation. In 1943, she was deported and murdered in the Auschwitz concentration camp.

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Editorial Note: This quote is curated and fact-checked by the ShortQuote Editorial Team. Verified Literature Specialist.

More by Etty Hillesum

"Ultimately, we have just one moral duty: to reclaim large areas of peace in ourselves, more and more peace, and to reflect it towards others. And the more peace there is in us, the more peace there will be in our troubled world."

— Etty Hillesum
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More about Power

"The power to prevent violence is a power that no police force seems to have anywhere in the United States."

— John Abizaid
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"What one writer can make in the solitude of one room is something no power can easily destroy."

— Salman Rushdie
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"We continue to focus on actually solving problems that real people have and not being distracted by what power users want."

— Arash Ferdowsi
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"The exercise of power is determined by thousands of interactions between the world of the powerful and that of the powerless, all the more so because these worlds are never divided by a sharp line: everyone has a small part of himself in both."

— Vaclav Havel
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