Quotes from Corrie Ten Boom

It was a fact. We knew it, we experienced it minute by minute—poor, hated, hungry. We are more than conquerors. Not "we shall be." We are! Life in Ravensbruck took place on two separate levels, mutually impossible. One, the observable, external life, grew every day more horrible. The other, the life we lived with God, grew daily better, truth upon truth, glory upon glory.

And I would know again that in darkness God's truth shines most clear.

I remembered Father's words to the Gestapo chief in The Hague: "I will open my door to anyone in need. . . ." No one in the city was in greater need than its feeble-minded.

He hung naked on the cross. I had not known—I had not thought. . . . The paintings, the carved crucifixes showed at the least a scrap of cloth. But this, I suddenly knew, was the respect and reverence of the artist. But oh—at the time itself, on that other Friday morning—there had been no reverence. No more than I saw in the faces around us now.

and uncared for. Nor could I see the necessity for the complete undressing:

Yes," he said. "And it would be a pretty poor father who would ask his little girl to carry such a load. It's the same way, Corrie, with knowledge. Some knowledge is too heavy for children. When you are older and stronger you can bear it. For now you must trust me to carry it for you." And I was satisfied. More than satisfied—wonderfully at peace.

In 1959 Corrie was part of a group that visited Ravensbruck, which was then in East Germany, to honor Betsie and the 96,000 other women who died there. There Corrie learned that her own release had been part of a clerical error; one week later all women her age were taken to the gas chamber.

Jesus is Victor.

Jesus can turn loss into glory.

there were no individual beds at all, but great square piers stacked three high, and wedged side by side, and end to end with only an occasional narrow aisle slicing through.

That was Father's secret: not that he overlooked the differences in people; that he didn't know they were there. And

At last she pointed to a second tier in the center of a large block. To reach it we had to stand on the bottom level, haul ourselves up, and then crawl across three other straw-covered platforms to reach the one that we would share with—how many?

Forgiveness is an act of the will, and the will can function regardless of the temperature of the heart.

You say we could lose our lives for this child. I would consider that the greatest honor that could come to my family.

Faith is like radar that sees through the fog.

when we are powerless to do a thing, it is a great joy that we can come and step inside the ability of Jesus

No pit is so deep that He is not deeper still; with Jesus even in our darkest moments, the best remains and the very best is yet to be.

Some knowledge is too heavy...you cannot bear it...your Father will carry it until you are able.

Forgiveness is setting the prisoner free, only to find out that the prisoner was me.

Forgiveness is not an emotion; it is an act of the will.

Jesus loves sinners. He only loves sinners. He has never turned anyone away who came to Him for forgiveness, and He died on the cross for sinners, not for respectable people.

If we forgive other people, our hearts are made fit to receive forgiveness.

Only to those who have been in prison does freedom have such great meaning.

To forgive is to set a prisoner free and discover the prisoner was you.