In this post, we’ll read the most famous Anne Frank’s quotes taken from her writings in her diary.
Anne Frank (1929–1945) was a Jewish girl whose diary, known as “The Diary of a Young Girl” or “Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl,” became one of the most widely read accounts of the Holocaust.
Anne was born on June 12, 1929, in Frankfurt, Germany, and her family later moved to Amsterdam, Netherlands, to seek refuge from the persecution of Jews by the Nazis. She began writing her diary on her thirteenth birthday in 1942.
The diary consists of the details of her life in hiding with her family and four other Jews in a concealed annex above her father’s business in Amsterdam during the Nazi occupation of the Netherlands. They lived in the secret annex for over two years, along with another Jewish family, the van Pels, and a dentist named Fritz Pfeffer.
After the war, Otto Frank, Anne’s father and the only surviving family member, discovered Anne’s diary. He fulfilled her wish to become a writer by getting it published. The diary, first published in 1947, has been translated into numerous languages and has become one of the most widely read books in the world.
It is an important historical document that educates readers about the atrocities of World War II and as well as the thoughts and perceptions of the thirteen year old girl who had matured far beyond her age.
Here are the best Anne Frank quotes about her experiences with love, war, life and the Holocaust.
Best Anne Frank Quotes
1. “But feelings can’t be ignored, no matter how unjust or ungrateful they seem.”
2. “Whoever doesn’t know it must learn and find by experience that ‘a quiet conscience makes one strong!’”
3. “Paper has more patience than people.”
4. “Parents can only give good advice or put them on the right paths, but the final forming of a person’s character lies in their own hands.”
5. “People can tell you to keep your mouth shut, but that doesn’t stop you from having your own opinion.”
6. “Deep down, the young are lonelier than the old.”
7. “There’s only one rule you need to remember: laugh at everything and forget everybody else! It sounds egotistical, but it’s actually the only cure for those suffering from self-pity.”
8. “Don’t condemn me, remember rather that sometimes I, too, can reach the bursting point.”
9. “Memories mean more to me than dresses.”
10. “The young are not afraid of telling the truth.”
Anne Frank Quotes About Love
1. “Love, what is love? I don’t think you can really put it into words. Love is understanding someone, caring for him, sharing his joys and sorrows. This eventually includes physical love. You’ve shared something, given something away and received something in return, whether or not you’re married, whether or not you have a baby. Losing your virtue doesn’t matter, as long as you know that for as long as you live you’ll have someone at your side who understands you, and who doesn’t have to be shared with anyone else!”
2. “You can be lonely even when you’re loved by many people, since you’re still not anybody’s ‘one and only’.”
3. “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.”
Anne Frank Quotes About Life
1. “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!”
2. “And finally I twist my heart round again, so that the bad is on the outside and the good is on the inside, and keep on trying to find a way of becoming what I would so like to be, and could be, if there weren’t any other people living in the world.”
Anne Frank Quotes About Death
1. “Dead people receive more flowers than living ones because regret is stronger than gratitude”.
2. “I simply can’t build my hopes on a foundation of confusion, misery and death… I think… peace and tranquillity will return again.”
3. “It’s utterly impossible for me to build my life on a foundation of chaos, suffering and death. I see the world being slowly transformed into a wilderness, I hear the approaching thunder that, one day, will destroy us too, I feel the suffering of millions.”
Anne Frank Quotes About Holocaust
1. “After May 1940, the good times were few and far between; first there was the war, then the capitulation, and then the arrival of the Germans, which is when the trouble started for the Jews.”
2. “Who has made us Jews different from all other people? Who has allowed us to suffer so terribly up until now? It is God who has made us as we are, but it will be God, too, who will raise us up again. Who knows? It might even be our religion from which the world and all peoples learn good, and for that reason and only that reason do we suffer. 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.”
3. “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.”
4. “Because we’re Jewish, my father immigrated to Holland in 1933, where he became the managing director of the Dutch Opekta Company, which manufactures products used in making jam.”
5. “Our many Jewish friends and acquaintances are being taken away in droves. The Gestapo is treating them very roughly and transporting them in cattle cars to Westerbork, the big camp in Drenthe to which they’re sending all the Jews….If it’s that bad in Holland, what must it be like in those faraway and uncivilized places where the Germans are sending them? We assume that most of them are being murdered. The English radio says they’re being gassed.”
Anne Frank Quotes About Kindness
1. “Despite everything, I believe that people are really good at heart.”
2. “Human greatness does not lie in wealth or power, but in character and goodness. People are just people, and all people have faults and shortcomings, but all of us are born with a basic goodness.”
3. “How wonderful it is that nobody need wait a single moment before starting to improve the world.”
4. “No one has ever become poor by giving.”
5. “In the long run, the sharpest weapon of all is a kind and gentle spirit.”
6. “Look at how a single candle can both defy and define the darkness.”
7. “Everyone has inside of him a piece of good news. The good news is that you don’t know how great you can be! How much you can love! What you can accomplish! And what your potential is!”
Anne Frank Quotes About War
1. “I see the world being slowly transformed into a wilderness; I hear the approaching thunder that, one day, will destroy us too. I feel the suffering of millions. And yet, when I look up at the sky, I somehow feel that everything will change for the better, that this cruelty too shall end, that peace and tranquility will return once more.”
2. “I live in a crazy time.”
3. “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.”
4. “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 Quotes About Hope
1. “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.v
2. “As long as this exists, this sunshine and this cloudless sky, and as long as I can enjoy it, how can I be sad?”
3. “I’ve found that there is always some beauty left — in nature, sunshine, freedom, in yourself; these can all help you.”
4. “It’s really a wonder that I haven’t dropped all my ideals, because they seem so absurd and impossible to carry out. Yet I keep them, because in spite of everything, I still believe that people are really good at heart.”
Anne Frank Quotes About Happiness
1. “Earning happiness means doing good and working, not speculating and being lazy. Laziness may look inviting, but only work gives you true satisfaction.”
2. “The best remedy for those who are afraid, lonely or unhappy is to go outside, somewhere where they can be quiet, alone with the heavens, nature and God. Because only then does one feel that all is as it should be.”
3. “I don’t think of all the misery but of the beauty that still remains.”
4. “Whoever is happy will make others happy too.”
5. “We all live with the objective of being happy; our lives are all different and yet the same.”
6. “Think of all the beauty still left around you and be happy.”
7. “I don’t have much in the way of money or worldly possessions, I’m not beautiful, intelligent or clever, but I’m happy, and I intend to stay that way! I was born happy, I love people, I have a trusting nature, and I’d like everyone else to be happy too.”
Anne Frank Quotes About Writing
1. “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 school girl. Oh well, it doesn’t matter. I feel like writing.”
2. “If I haven’t any talent for writing books or newspaper articles, well, then I can always write for myself.”
3. “When I write, I can shake off all my cares.”
4. “I soothe my conscience now with the thought that it is better for hard words to be on paper than that Mummy should carry them in her heart.”
5. “Who else but me is ever going to read these letters?”
Anne Frank Quotes About Courage
1. “I can shake off everything as I write; my sorrows disappear, my courage is reborn.”
2. “I know what I want, I have a goal, an opinion, I have a religion and love. Let me be myself and then I am satisfied. I know that I’m a woman, a woman with inward strength and plenty of courage.”
3. “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.”
4. “Those who have courage and faith shall never perish in misery.”
5. “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!”
Inspirational Anne Frank Quotes
1. “Laziness may appear attractive, but work gives satisfaction.”
2. “When I got older, I noticed that not all questions can be asked and that many whys can never be answered. As a result, I tried to work things out for myself by mulling over my own questions. And I came to the important discovery that questions which you either can’t or shouldn’t ask in public, or questions which you can’t put into words, can easily be solved in your own head. So the word ‘why’ not only taught me to ask, but also to think. And thinking has never hurt anyone. On the contrary, it does us all a world of good.”
3. “When you are on your bed at night just analyse all the happenings you have been go through whole day and learn from your mistakes, you will be a better person then.”
4. “I think a lot, but I don’t say much.”
5. “How noble and good everyone could be if, every evening before falling asleep, they were to recall to their minds the events of the whole day and consider exactly what has been good and bad. Then without realizing it, you try to improve yourself at the start of each new day.”
6. “Anyhow, I’ve learned one thing now. You only really get to know people when you’ve had a jolly good row with them. Then and then only can you judge their true characters!
7. “What is done cannot be undone, but one can prevent it happening again.”
Personal Anne Frank Quotes From her Diary
1. “Although I’m only fourteen, I know quite well what I want. I know who is right and who is wrong. I have my opinions, my own ideas and principles, and although it may sound pretty mad from an adolescent, I feel more of a person than a child. I feel quite independent of anyone.”
2. “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.”
3. “I have a family, loving aunts, and a good home. No, on the surface I seem to have everything except my one true friend. All I think about when I’m with friends is having a good time. I can’t bring myself to talk about anything but ordinary everyday things. We don’t seem to be able to get any closer, and that’s the problem.”
4. “No one knows Anne’s better side, and that’s why most people can’t stand me. Oh, I can be an amusing clown for an afternoon, but after that, everyone’s had enough of me to last a month.
5. “Who would ever think that so much went on in the soul of a young girl?”
6. “Boys will be boys. And even that wouldn’t matter if only we could prevent girls from being girls.”
7. “In a minute I’ll give him such a smack in the face that he’ll fly up to the ceiling together with his lies.”
8. “I had an occasional flash of understanding, but then got selfishly wrapped up again in my own problems and pleasures.”
9. “Everyone thinks I’m showing off when I talk, ridiculous when I’m silent, insolent when I answer, cunning when I have a good idea, lazy when I’m tired, selfish when I eat one bite more than I should.”
10. “Sometimes I believe that God wants to try me, both now and later on; I must become good through my own efforts, without examples and without good advice.”
11. “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.”
In August 1944, the annex residents were betrayed, and the hiding place was discovered. The occupants were arrested and deported to concentration camps. Anne and her sister Margot were eventually sent to the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp.
She and her sister Margot both died of typhus in Bergen-Belsen in early 1945, shortly before the camp was liberated by Allied forces. Anne was only 15 years old. Out of the eight annex occupants, only Anne’s father, Otto Frank, survived the Holocaust.
These Anne Frank quotes from her diary reflect her thoughts and situations and her story has left a lasting impact on people around the world and served as a symbol of resilience, hope, and the human spirit in the face of adversity. The Anne Frank House in Amsterdam, where the Frank family went into hiding is now a museum dedicated to her memory.
Share these Anne Frank quotes with your loved ones <3
Also Read:
