Quotes from Corrie Ten Boom

Three years after Mama's death, I became the first licensed woman watchmaker in Holland.

And so I learned that love is larger than the walls that shut it in.

I slipped my arm beneath Betsie's shoulders and half-carried her the final quarter-mile. At last the path ended and we lined up facing the single track, over a thousand women standing toe to heel.

But more than that, I felt - no, not beautiful. Even on such a romantic day as this I could not persuade myself of that. I knew that my jaw was too square, my legs too long, my hands too large. But I earnestly believed - and all the books agreed - that I would look beautiful to the man who loved me.

We were shoved against the back wall. Thirty or forty people were all that could fit in. And still the soldiers drove women over the side, cursing, jabbing with their guns. Shrieks rose from the center of the car but still the press increased. It was only when eighty women were packed inside that the door thumped shut and we heard iron bolts driven into place.

Thou art my hiding place and my shield: I hope in thy word... Hold thou me up, and I shall be safe...

However, I reasoned, perhaps she had not experienced miracles before.

But under the words, a prayer was forming in my heart. Lord Jesus, I offer myself for Your people. In any way. Any place. Any time.

On my closed eyelids the sun glimmered and blazed. "It says," I began slowly, "that a Light has come into this world, so that we need no longer walk in the dark. Is there darkness in your life, Lieutenant?" There was a very long silence. "There is great darkness," he said at last. "I cannot bear the work I do here.

There are some, like me, who are called to live a single life," I said softly. "For them it is always easy for they are, by their nature, content. Others, like Ellen, are called to prepare for marriage which may come in later life. They, too, are blessed, for God is using the in-between years to teach them that marriage is not the answer to unhappiness. Happiness is found only in a balanced relationship with the Lord Jesus.

But I am in prison, dear lady from Haarlem, a prison stronger than this one.

What feeds the soul matters as much as what feeds the body. In