Anne Frank Quotes & Sayings

How can I make it clear to him that what appears easy and attractive will drag him down into the depths, depths where there is no comfort to be found, no friends and no beauty, depths from which it is almost impossible to raise oneself? — Anne Frank

This morning I was wondering whether you ever felt like a cow, having to chew my stale news over and over again until you're so fed up with the monotonous fare that you yawn and secretly wish Anne would dig up something new. — Anne Frank

I'm afraid my common sense, which was in short supply to begin with, wil be used up too quickly and I won't have any left by the time the war is over. — Anne Frank

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. — Anne Frank

I have an intense need to be alone. Father has noticed I'm not my usual self, but I can't tell him what's bothering me. All I want to do is scream 'let me be, leave me alone! — Anne Frank

Even when I was older, I couldn't stop asking questions. — Anne Frank

The world's been turned upside down. The most decent people are being sent to concentration camps, prisons and lonely cells, while the lowest of the low rule over young and old, rich and poor. — Anne Frank

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. — Anne Frank

I had an occasional flash of understanding, but then got selfishly wrapped up again in my own problems and pleasures. — Anne Frank

The best remedy for those who are afraid, lonely or unhappy is to go outside, somewhere where they can be quite alone with the heavens, nature and God. Because only then does one feel that all is as it should be and that God wishes to see people happy, amidst the simple beauty of nature. As longs as this exists, and it certainly always will, I know that then there will always be comfort for every sorrow, whatever the circumstances may be. And I firmly believe that nature brings solace in all troubles. — Anne Frank

I've found that there is always some beauty left
in nature, sunshine, freedom, in yourself; these can all help you. — Anne Frank

I can recapture everything when I write, my thoughts, my ideals and my fantasies. — Anne Frank

We've all been a little confused this past week, because our dearly beloved Westertoren bells have been carted off to be melted down for the war, so we have no idea of the exact time, either night or day. — Anne Frank

Think of all the beauty still left around you and be happy. — Anne Frank

Generally speaking, men are held in great esteem in all parts of the world, so why shouldn't women have their share? Soldiers and war heroes are honored and commemorated, explorers are granted immortal fame, martyrs are revered, but how many people look upon women too as soldiers? — Anne Frank

When I write I can shake off all my cares. My sorrow disappears, my spirits are revived! — Anne Frank

Memories mean more to me than dresses. — Anne Frank

Ordinary people simply don't know what books mean to us, shut up here. Reading, learning, and the radio are our amusements. — Anne Frank

I want to go on living after my death! — Anne Frank

Leave me alone, let me have at least one night when I don't cry myself to sleep with eyes burning and my head pounding. Let me get away, away from everything, away from this world! — Anne Frank

I'm sentimental
I know. I'm desperate and silly
I know that too. Oh, help me! — Anne Frank

You only really get to know a person after a fight. Only then can you judge their true character! Yours, — Anne Frank

It is the silence that frightens me so in the evenings and at night ... I can't tell you how oppressive it is never to be able to go outdoors, also I am very afraid that we will be discovered and be shot. — Anne Frank

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

I want be a writer — Anne Frank

I wish to go on living even after my death. — Anne Frank

I keep my ideals because in spite of everything I still believe that people are good at heart. — Anne Frank

You can always-always-give something, even if it's a simple act of kindness! If everyone were to give in this way and didn't scrimp on kindly words, there would be much more love and justice in the world! — Anne Frank

But I looked out of the open window too, over a large area of Amsterdam, over all the roofs and on to the horizon, which was such a pale blue that it was hard to see the dividing line. "As long as this exists," I thought, "and I may live to see it, this sunshine, the cloudless skies, while this lasts, I cannot be unhappy. — Anne Frank

You are all made of real poop. — Anne Frank

It still makes me happy to think back to those words and that look — Anne Frank

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. — Anne Frank

That's all I was: a terrible flirt, coquettish and amusing. I had a few plus points, which kept me in everybody's good graces: I was hardworking, honest and generous. I would never have refused anyone who wanted to peek at my answers, I was magnanimous with my candy, and I wasn't stuck-up. Would all that admiration eventually have made me overconfident? — Anne Frank

I've drawn myself apart from them all; I am my own skipper and later on I shall see where I come to land — Anne Frank

It's difficult in times like these: ideals, dreams and cherished hopes rise within us, only to be crushed by grim reality. It's a wonder I haven't abandoned all my ideals, they seem so absurd and impractical. Yet I cling to them because I still believe, in spite of everything, that people are truly good at heart. — Anne Frank

The weak die out and the strong will survive, and will live on forever — Anne Frank

Little bundle of contradictions — Anne Frank

Because paper has more patience than people. — Anne Frank

Who has inflicted this upon us? Who has made us Jews different from all other people? Who has allowed us to suffer so terribly up till now? It is God that has made us as we are, but it will be God, too, who will raise us up again. If we bear all this suffering and if there are still Jews left, when it is over, then Jews, instead of being doomed, will be held up as an example. Who knows, it might even be our religion from which the world and all peoples learn good, and for that reason and that reason alone do we have to suffer now. We can never become just Netherlanders, or just English, or representatives of any country for that matter; we will always remain Jews, but we want to, too. — Anne Frank

Ordinary people don't know how much books can mean to someone who's cooped up. — Anne Frank

If young people wished, they have it in their hands to make a bigger, more beautiful and better world, but that they occupy themselves with superficial things, without giving a thought to real beauty. — Anne Frank

Yes, there is no doubt that paper is patient and as I don't intend to show this cardboard-covered notebook, bearing the proud name of "diary," to anyone, unless I find a real friend, boy or girl, probably nobody cares. And now I come to the root of the matter, the reason for my starting a diary: it is that I have no such real friend. — Anne Frank

What are you supposed to do if you become part of the suffering? You'd be completely lost. On the contrary, beauty remains, even in misfortune. — Anne Frank

Chins up, stick it out, better times will come. — Anne Frank

The reason for my starting a diary is that I have no real friend. — Anne Frank

It won't take long before I explode with pent-up rage. — Anne Frank

It seems to me that, later on, neither I nor anyone else will be interested in the chatterings of a 13-year-old schoolgirl ... — Anne Frank

Sadness comes from feeling sorry for yourself and happiness from joy. I stopped talking — Anne Frank

If I only knew how much longer we had to put up with each other's company, I'd start counting the days. — Anne Frank

I misjudged her, wasn't mature enough to understand how difficult it was for her. — Anne Frank

Could spend hours telling you about the suffering the war has brought, but I'd only make myself more miserable. All we can do is wait, as calmly as possible, for it to end. Jews and Christians alike are waiting, the whole world is waiting, and many are waiting for death. — Anne Frank

Kitty, if only you knew how I sometimes boil under so many gibes and jeers. And I don't know how long I shall be able to stifle my rage. I shall just blow up one day. Still, — Anne Frank

Margot is very kind and would like me to confide in her, but I can't tell her everything. She takes me too seriously, far too seriously, and spends a lot of time thinking about her loony sister, looking at me closely whenever I open my mouth and wondering, Is she acting, or does she really mean it? — Anne Frank

How wonderful it is that nobody need wait a single moment before starting to improve the world. — Anne Frank

I want to see the world and do all kinds of exciting things, and a little money won't hurt. — Anne Frank

I was too happy for words and I believe he was as well. — Anne Frank

Dussel promised her the moon, but, as usual, we haven't seen so much as a beam. — Anne Frank

No one ever was the poorer for giving — Anne Frank

The only way to truly know a person is to argue with them. For when they argue in full swing, then they reveal their true character. — Anne Frank

Where there's hope, there's life. It fills us with fresh courage and makes us strong again. — Anne Frank

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. — Anne Frank

And you can always, always, give kindness — Anne Frank

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. — Anne Frank

I see the eight of us in the Annex as if we were a patch of blue sky surrounded by menacing black clouds. The perfectly round spot on which we're standing is still safe, but the clouds are moving in on us, and the ring between us and the approaching danger is being pulled tighter and tighter. We're surrounded by darkness and danger, and in our desperate search for a way out we keep bumping into each other. We look at the fighting down below and the peace and beauty up above. In the meantime, we've been cut off by the dark mass of clouds, so that we can go neither up nor down. It looms before us like an impenetrable wall, trying to crush us, but not yet able to. I can only cry out and implore, Oh, ring, ring, open wide and let us out! — Anne Frank

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. — Anne Frank

I don't want to have lived in vain like most people. I want to be useful or bring enjoyment to all people, even those I've never met. I want to go on living even after my death! — Anne Frank

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

I get frightened myself when I think of close friends who are now at the mercy of the cruelest monsters ever to stalk the earth. And all because they're Jews. — Anne Frank

So much has happened it's as if the whole world had suddenly turned upside down. — Anne Frank

I can't let them see my doubts, or the wounds they've inflicted on me. — Anne Frank

What is done cannot be undone, but one can prevent it happening again. — Anne Frank

This is the beginning of the end (talking about the war) ... Everyone was saying ... But the British Prime Minister said, "This is not the end. It is not even the beginning of the end. But it is, perhaps, the end of the beginning." Do you see the difference? — Anne Frank

Not being able to go outside upsets me more than I can say, and I'm terrified our hiding place will be discovered and that we'll be shot. That, of course, is a fairly dismal prospect. — Anne Frank

I don't believe that the big men, the politicians and capitalists alone, are guilty of war. Oh no, the little man is just as guilty, otherwise the peoples of the world would have risen in revolt long ago! — Anne Frank

Paper has more patience than people.' I thought of this saying on one of those days when I was feeling a little depressed and was sitting at home with my chin in my hands, bored and listless, wondering whether to stay in or go out. I finally stayed where I was, brooding. Yes, paper does have more patience, and since I'm not planning to let anyone else read this stiff-backed notebook grandly referred to as a 'diary', unless I should ever find a real friend, it probably won't make a bit of difference. — Anne Frank

I'm my best and harshest critic. I know what's good and what isn't. — Anne Frank

Honestly, you needn't think it's easy to be the "badly brought up" central figure of a hypocritical family in hiding. — Anne Frank

What a wonderful thought it is that some of the best days of our lives haven't even happened yet. — Anne Frank

Writing in a diary is a really strange experience for someone like me. Not only because I've never written anything before, but also because it seems to me that later on neither I nor anyone else will be interested in the musings of a thirteen-year-old schoolgirl. — Anne Frank

No one can keep out of conflict, the entire world is at war, and even though the allies are doing better, the end is nowhere in sight. — Anne Frank

If I'm engrossed in a book, I have to rearrange my thoughts before I can mingle with other people, because otherwise they might think I was strange. — Anne Frank

People can tell you to keep your mouth shut, but that doesn't stop you from having your own opinion. — Anne Frank

I wonder if it's because I haven't been able to poke my nose outdoors for so long that I've grown so crazy about everything to do with Nature? — Anne Frank

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. — Anne Frank

Crying can bring such relief. — Anne Frank

And Father's fondness for talking about farting and going to the bathroom is disgusting. — Anne Frank

I was suffocating even before we left the house, but no one bothered to ask me how I felt. — Anne Frank

He who has courage and faith will never perish in misery! — Anne Frank

The weak fall, but the strong will remain and never go under! — Anne Frank

If the truth is told, things are just as bad as you yourself care to make them. — Anne Frank

There's something happening everyday, but I'm too tired and lazy to write it all down. — Anne Frank

I'm afraid that people who know me as I usually am will discover I have another side, a better and finer side. I'm afraid they'll mock me, think I'm ridiculous and sentimental and not take me seriously. I'm used to not being taken seriously, but only the 'light-hearted' Anne is used to it and can put up with it; the 'deeper' Anne is too weak. — Anne Frank

At such times Daddy, Mummy and Margot leave me cold. I wander from one room to another, downstairs and up again, feeling like a songbird whose wings have been clipped and who is hurling himself in utter darkness against the bars of his cage. "Go outside, laugh, and take a breath of fresh air," a voice cries within me, but I don't even feel a response any more; I go and lie on the divan and sleep, to make the time pass more quickly, and the stillness and terrible fear, because there is no way of killing them. — Anne Frank

We all live with the objective of being happy; our lives are all different and yet the same. — Anne Frank

Go outside ... amidst the simple beauty of nature ... and know that as long as places like this exist, there will be comfort for every sorrow, whatever the circumstances may be. — Anne Frank

Why are millions spent on the war each day, while not a penny is available for medical science, artists or the poor? Why do people have to starve when mountains of food are rotting away in other parts of the world? Oh, why are people so crazy? I — Anne Frank

I know I'm far from being what I should; will I ever be? — Anne Frank

The Knock at the Door by Ina Boudier-Bakker. — Anne Frank

I think it's odd that grown-ups quarrel so easily and so often and about such petty matters. Up to now I always thought bickering was just something children did and that they outgrew it. — Anne Frank

I think a lot, but I don't say much. — Anne Frank