These Anne Frank quotes will show you that there is hope even in the midst of adversity.
Our collection highlights 150 quotes from Anne Frank’s firsthand account during the Nazi occupation in World War II.
Anne and her family were in hiding for two years, and with no friend to confide in, she turned to her diary as a source of comfort and a way to cope.
If you’d like to read more about Anne’s experience, check out the full list below.
And make sure to read these Ram Dass quotes.
Best Anne Frank Quotes
1. “No one has ever become poor by giving.”
2. “Think of all the beauty still left around you and be happy.”
3. “Because paper has more patience than people. ”
4. “I don’t think of all the misery, but of the beauty that still remains.”
5. “How wonderful it is that nobody need wait a single moment before starting to improve the world.”
6. “Where there’s hope, there’s life. It fills us with fresh courage and makes us strong again.”
7. “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.”
8. “I can shake off everything as I write; my sorrows disappear, my courage is reborn.”
9. “People can tell you to keep your mouth shut, but that doesn’t stop you from having your own opinion.”
10. “We all live with the objective of being happy; our lives are all different and yet the same.”
11. “Look at how a single candle can both defy and define the darkness.”
12. “A person who’s happy will make others happy; a person who has courage and faith will never die in misery.”
13. “I’ve found that there is always some beauty left—in nature, sunshine, freedom, in yourself; these can all help you.”
14. “In spite of everything, I still believe that people are really good at heart.”
15. “In the long run, the sharpest weapon of all is a kind and gentle spirit.”
16. “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.”
17. “I think a lot, but I don’t say much.”
18. “A quiet conscience makes one strong!”
19. “You can be lonely even when you are loved by many people, since you are still not anybody’s one and only.”
20. “As long as this exists, this sunshine and this cloudless sky, and as long as I can enjoy it, how can I be sad?”
Anne Frank Quotes on Fear and Suffering
21. “War’s greatest evil—the degradation of the human spirit.”
22. “An empty day, though clear and bright, is just as dark as any night.”
23. “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.”
24. “Anyhow, I’ve learned one thing now. You only really get to know people when you’ve had a jolly good row with them—only can you judge their true characters!”
25. “Misfortunes never come singly.”
26. “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.”
27. “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.”
28. “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.”
29. “Deep down, the young are lonelier than the old.”
30. “The weak die out and the strong will survive, and will live on forever.”
31. “Dead people receive more flowers than the living ones because regret is stronger than gratitude.”
32. “And yet not every sense of what’s good and right can be trusted, for what else is war but two sides going to battle over what each thinks is right?”
33. “Families are torn apart; men, women, and children are separated. Children come back from school to find that their parents have disappeared. Women return from shopping to find their houses sealed, their families gone.”
34. “I’m seething with rage, yet I can’t show it.”
35. “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.”
36. “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.”
37. “Don’t condemn me, remember rather that sometimes I, too, can reach the bursting point.”
38. “I simply can’t build up my hopes on a foundation consisting of confusion, misery and death.”
39. “Sometimes I’m so deeply buried under self-reproaches that I long for a word of comfort to help me dig myself out again.”
40. “Besides, your imagination often plays tricks on you in moments of danger.”
41. “I see the world gradually being turned into a wilderness. I hear the ever-approaching thunder, which will destroy us too. I can feel the sufferings of millions and yet, if I look up into the heavens, I think that it will all come right.”
42. “The strangest things happen to you when you’re in hiding!”
43. “People can so easily be tempted by slackness and by money.”
44. “What’s the point of the war? Why, oh why can’t people live together peacefully? Why all this destruction?”
45. “Things were different when I was growing up.”
46. “I’ve always had to pay double for my sins: once with scoldings and then again with my own sense of despair.”
47. “Sleep makes the silence and the terrible fear go by more quickly—helps pass the time—since it’s impossible to kill.”
48. “Jews and Christians wait, the whole world waits, and there are many who wait for death.”
49. “I feel wicked sleeping in a warm bed, while somewhere out there my dearest friends are dropping from exhaustion or being knocked to the ground.”
50. “I live in a crazy time.”
51. “So much has happened; it’s as if the whole world had suddenly turned upside down.”
52. “How can thinking about the misery of others help if you’re miserable yourself?”
53. “I could spend hours telling you about the suffering the war has brought, but I’d only make myself more miserable.”
54. “No one is spared. The sick, the elderly, children, babies, and pregnant women—all marched to their death.”
55. “That’s something we should never forget; while others display their heroism in battle or against the Germans, our helpers prove their’s every day by their good spirits and affection.”
56. “Fine specimens of humanity, those Germans, and to think I’m actually one of them! No, that’s not true, Hitler took away our nationality long ago.”
57. “We were caught in a vicious circle of unpleasantness and sorrow. Not a very happy period for either us, but at least it’s coming to an end.”
58. “Of course, we can’t ever look out the window or go outside. And we have to be quiet so the people downstairs can’t hear us.”
59. “We’re so fortunate here, away from the turmoil. We wouldn’t have to give a moment’s thought to all this suffering if it weren’t for the fact that we’re so worried about those we hold dear, whom we can no longer help.”
60. “I wonder if anyone can ever succeed in making their children content.”
Anne Frank Quotes on Love and Companionship
61. “Boys will be boys, and even that wouldn’t matter if only we could prevent girls from being girls.”
62. “The reason for my starting a diary is that I have no real friends.”
63. “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!”
64. “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.”
65. “If I read a book that impresses me, I have to take myself firmly in hand before I mix with other people; otherwise they would think my mind rather queer.”
66. “Who else but me is ever going to read these letters?”
67. “In the future I’m going to devote less time to sentimentality and more time to reality.”
68. “It must be awful to feel you’re not needed.”
69. “This is a photograph of me as I wish I looked all the time. Then I might have a chance of getting in Hollywood.”
70. “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.”
71. “I am what a romantic movie is to a profound thinker—a mere diversion, a comic interlude, something that is soon forgotten.”
72. “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.”
73. “Who knows, perhaps he doesn’t care about me at all and looks at the others in just the same way.”
74. “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.”
75. “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.”
76. “There’s one golden rule to keep before you: laugh about everything and don’t bother yourself about the others!”
77. “No, I’m not afraid, except when it comes to things about myself, but I’m working on that.”
78. “I’m happy when I see him, and happier still if the sun shines when we’re together.”
79. “Whenever he looks at me with those eyes, with that smile and that wink, it’s as if a light goes on inside me.”
80. “I don’t want followers, but friends, admirers who fall not for a flattering smile, but for what one does and for one’s character.”
81. “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.”
82. “It still makes me happy to think back to those words and that look.”
83. “I hope I will be able to confide everything to you, as I have never been able to confide in anyone, and I hope you will be a great source of comfort and support.”
84. “I don’t want to be cross, love cannot be forced.”
85. “I misjudged her—wasn’t mature enough to understand how difficult it was for her.”
86. “I was too happy for words and I believe he was as well.”
87. “No one must know that my heart and mind are constantly at war with each other.”
88. “I long to ride a bike, dance, whistle, look at the world, feel young and know that I’m free, and yet I can’t let it show.”
89. “I have an intense need to be alone.”
90. “I’m sentimental—I know. I’m desperate and silly—I know that too. Oh, help me!”
91. “But feelings can’t be ignored, no matter how unjust or ungrateful they seem.”
92. “Memories mean more to me than dresses.”
93. “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.”
94. “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.”
95. “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. ”
96. “Sympathy, love, fortune—we all have these qualities but still tend to not use them!”
Anne Frank Quotes on Hope, Perseverance, and Legacy
97. “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.”
98. “Earning happiness means doing good and working, not speculating and being lazy. Laziness may look inviting, but only work gives you true satisfaction.”
99. “I wish to go on living even after my death.”
100. “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.”
101. “The weak fall, but the strong will remain and never go under!”
102. “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!”
103. “My life here has gotten better, much better. God has not forsaken me, and He never will.”
104. “Laziness may appear attractive, but work gives satisfaction.”
105. “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.”
106. “I want to write, but more than that, I want to bring out all kinds of things that lie buried deep in my heart.”
107. “People who have a religion should be glad, for not everyone has the gift of believing in heavenly things.”
108. “How lovely that everyone, great and small, can make their contribution toward introducing justice straightaway. And you can always, always give something—even if it is only kindness!”
109. “Crying can bring relief, as long as you don’t cry alone.”
110. “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.”
111. “There’s something happening everyday, but I’m too tired and lazy to write it all down.”
112. “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.”
113. “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.”
114. “The young are not afraid of telling the truth.”
115. “What is done cannot be undone, but one can prevent it from happening again.”
116. “You must work and do good, not be lazy and gamble, if you wish to earn happiness.”
117. “Ordinary people simply don’t know what books mean to us.”
118. “Don’t be too assuming, it doesn’t get you anywhere.”
119. “Our lives are fashioned by our choices. First we make our choices. Then our choices make us.”
120. “One gets on better in life if one is not over modest.”
121. “I looked up in the sky and trusted in God.”
122. “I had to hold my head up high and put a bold face on things, but the thoughts keep coming anyways.”
123. “I want to see the world and do all kinds of exciting things, and a little money won’t hurt.”
124. “I can’t let them see my doubts, or the wounds they’ve inflicted on me.”
125. “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.”
126. “I had an occasional flash of understanding, but then got selfishly wrapped up again in my own problems and pleasures.”
127. “Work, love, courage and hope—make me good and help me cope!”
128. “Deep down I know I could never be that innocent again, however much I’d like to be.”
129. “Time heals all wounds.”
130. “Beauty remains, even in misfortune.”
131. “Chins up, stick it out. Better times will come.”
132. “It’s easier to whisper your feelings than to trumpet them forth out loud.”
133. “The nicest part is being able to write down all my thoughts and feelings. Otherwise, I might suffocate.”
134. “I don’t think my opinions are stupid but other people do, so it’s better to keep them to myself.”
135. “When I look up at the sky, I somehow feel that everything will change for the better, that this cruelty too will end, that peace and tranquility will return once more.”
136. “We all live, but we don’t know the why or the wherefore.”
137. “I don’t intend to shrink from the truth, because the longer it’s postponed, the harder it will be for them to accept it when they do hear it!”
138. “I’m my best and harshest critic. I know what’s good and what isn’t.”
139. “People who are religious should be glad, since not everyone is blessed with the ability to believe in a higher order.”
140. “It’s not imagination on my part when I say that to look up at the sky, the clouds, the moon, and the stars make me calm and patient. It’s a better medicine than either valerian or bromine; mother nature makes me humble and prepared to face every blow courageously.”
141. “As long as you can look fearlessly at the sky, you’ll know that you’re pure within and will find happiness once more.”
142. “I am grateful to God for giving me this gift, this possibility of developing myself and of writing, of expressing all that is in me.”
143. “I know I’m far from being what I should; will I ever be?”
144. “I’ll show then that Anne Frank wasn’t born yesterday.”
145. “The art of living—isn’t that a funny expression?”
146. “We jumped for joy. After the awful events of yesterday, finally something good happens and brings us hope! Hope for an end to the war, hope for peace.”
147. “I found that it was easier to think up questions than to ask them.”
148. “You couldn’t do this and you couldn’t do that, but life went on.”
149. “I’m left with one consolation, small though it may be: my fountain pen was cremated, just as I would like to be some day.”
150. “I firmly believe that nature can bring comfort to all who suffer.”
Which of These Quotes From Anne Frank Make You Believe in Hope and the Goodness of People?
Anne Frank’s diary was a collection of painful memories that her family had to go through. However, it also accounted for Anne’s strength and perseverance. She regarded that man was innately good—that even with everything she has been through, she believed that “people are really good at heart”.
Which of these quotes tugged at your heartstrings the most? Do you have other topics you’d like us to cover? Let us know by commenting down below.
