Anne Frank

“But feelings can't be ignored, no matter how unjust or ungrateful they seem.”

“As long as you're in the food business, why not make sweets?”

“This week I've been reading a lot and doing little work. That's the way things ought to be. That's surely the road to success.”

“Riches can all be lost, but that happiness in your own heart can only be veiled, and it will bring you happiness again, as long as you live.”

“Deep down, the young are lonelier than the old.”

“In the book Soldiers on the Home Front, I was greatly struck by the fact that in childbirth alone, women commonly suffer more pain, illness and misery than any war hero ever does. An what's her reward for enduring all that pain? She gets pushed aside when she's disfigured by birth, her children soon leave, hear beauty is gone. Women, who struggle and suffer pain to ensure the continuation of the human race, make much tougher and more courageous soldiers than all those big-mouthed freedom-fighting heroes put together.”

“Sometimes I'm so deeply buried under self-reproaches that I long for a word of comfort to help me dig myself out again.”

“The best remedy for those who are frightened, lovely or unhappy is to go outside, somewhere they can be alone, alone with the sky, nature and God. For then and only then can you feel that everything is as it should be and that God wants people to be happy amid nature's beauty and simplicity.”

“I've reached the point where I hardly care whether I live or die. The world will keep on turning without me, I can't do anything to change events anyway.”

“I love you, with a love so great that it simply couldn't keep growing inside my heart, but had to leap out and reveal itself in all its magnitude.”

“I'm currently in the middle of a depression. I couldn't really tell you what set it off, but I think it stems from my cowardice, which confronts me at every turn.”

“I'll show then that Anne Frank wasn't born yesterday”

“Liefde, wat is liefde? Ik geloof dat liefde iets is wat eigenlijk geen woorden kan hebben. Liefde is iemand begrijpen, van iemand houden, geluk en ongeluk met hem delen. En daarbij hoort en den duur ook de lichamelijke liefde, je hebt wat gedeeld, iets weggegeven en iets ontvangen en of je dan getrouwd ongetrouwd bent, of een kind krijgt of niet. Of je eer weg is of niet, dat komt er allemaal niet op aan, als je maar weet dat er voor je hele verdere leven iemand naast je staat, die je begrijpt en die je met niemand hoeft te delen.”

“Wat één christen doet, moet hijzelf verantwoorden, wat één jood doet, valt op alle joden terug.”

“Alles is niet zo erg dan ontdekt te worden.”

“Al vertel ik je veel over ons, toch weet je nog maar een heel klein beetje van ons leven af.”

“Ik wil geen aanbidders, maar vrienden, geen bewonderaars voor een vleiend lachje maar voor optreden en karakter. Ik weet heel goed dat dan de kring om me heen veel kleiner zou zijn. Maar wat hindert dat als ik nog maar een paar mensen, oprechte mensen, overhoud?”

“Crying can bring relief, as long as you don't cry alone.”

“Misfortunes never come singly.”

“Er blijft ons niets anders over dan zo rustig als 't maar kan het einde van deze misère af te wachten. Zowel de joden als de christenen wachten, de hele aardbol wacht, en velen wachten op hun dood.”

“Ik word zelf bang als ik aan allen denk met wie ik me altijd zo innig verbonden voelde en die nu overgeleverd zijn aan de wreedste beulen die er ooit bestaan hebben.En dat alles omdat ze joden zijn.”

“Er bestaat geen grotere vijandschap op de wereld dan tussen Duitsers en joden.”

“Maar één ding weet ik nu en dat is dit: je leert de mensen pas goed kennen als je een keer echte ruzie met ze gemaakt hebt. Pas dan kun je hun karakter beoordelen.”

“I argued that talking is a female trait and that I would do my best to keep it under control, but that I would never be able to break myself of the habit, since my mother talked as much as I did, if not more, and that there's not much you can do about inherited traits.”

“The weak fall, but the strong will remain and never go under!”

“There's in people simply an urge to destroy, an urge to kill, to murder and rage, and until all mankind, without exception, undergoes a great change, wars will be waged, everything that has been built up, cultivated, and grown will be destroyed and disfigured, after which mankind will have to begin all over again”

“Older people have formed their opinions about everything, and don't waver before they act. It's twice as hard for us young ones to hold our ground, and maintain our opinions, in a time when all ideals are being shattered and destroyed, when people are showing their worst side, and do not know whether to believe in truth and right and God.”

“You must work and do good, not be lazy and gamble, if you wish to earn happiness. Laziness may appear attractive, but work gives satisfaction.”

“People can so easily be tempted by slackness... and by money.”

“I can't imagine how anyone can say: "I'm weak," and then remain so. After all, if you know it, why not fight against it, why not try to train your character? The answer was: "Because it's so much easier not to!”

“We are shut up here, shut away from the world, in fear and anxiety, especially just lately. Why, then, would we who love each other remain apart? Why should we wait until we've reached suitable age? Why should we bother?”

“I was too happy for words and I believe he was as well.”

“I can shake off everything if I write; my sorrows disappear, my courage is reborn. But, and that is the greatest question, will I ever be able to write anything great, will I ever become a journalist or a writer? I hope so, oh, I hope so very much, for I can recapture everything when I write, my thoughts, my ideas and my fantasies.”

“Let's not talk about it any more, but if you still want anything please write to me about it, because I can say what I mean much better on paper.”

“I think a lot, but I don't say much.”

“He clings to his solitude, to his affected indifference and his grown-up ways, but it's just an act, so as never, never to show his real feelings.”

“We aren't allowed to have any opinions. People can tell you to keep your mouth shut, but it doesn't stop you having your own opinion. Even if people are still very young, they shouldn't be prevented from saying what they think.”

“Who knows, perhaps he doesn't care about me at all and look at the others in just the same way.”

“I do my best to please everybody, far more than they'd ever guess. I try to laugh it all off, because I don't want to let them see my trouble.”

“If I talk, everyone thinks I'm showing off; when I'm silent they think I'm ridiculous, rude if I answer, sly if I get a good idea, lazy if I'm tired, selfish if I eat a mouthful more than I should, stupid, cowardly, crafty, etc., etc.”

“Then I fall asleep with a stupid feeling of wishing to be different from what I am or from what I want to be; perhaps to behave differently from the way I want to behave or do behave.”

“I wonder if anyone can ever succeed in making their children content.”

“I have always been the dunce, the never-do-well of the family, I've always have to pay double for my deeds, first with the scolding and then again because of the way my feelings are hurt.”

“One gets on better in life if one is not over modest.”

“Don't be too assuming, it doesn't get you anywhere.”

“Am I really so bad-mannered, conceited, headstrong, pushing, stupid, lazy, etc., etc., as they all say? Oh, of course not. I have my faults, just like everyone else, I kniw that, but they thoroughly exaggerate everything.”

“But it's the same with all my friends, just fun and joking, nothing more. I can never bring myself to talk of anything outside the common round.”

“The young are not afraid of telling the truth.”

“It is becoming a bad dream-- in the daytime as well as at night. I see him nearly all the time and can't get at him, I mustn't show anything, must remain gay while I'm really in despair.”

“What I condemn are our system of values and the men who don't acknowledge how great, difficult, but ultimately beautiful women's share in society is.”