35+ Famous Anne Frank Quotes

Anne Frank was a Jewish girl who gained worldwide fame posthumously for her diary, which she kept while hiding from the Nazis during the Holocaust. She was born Annelies Marie Frank on June 12, 1929, in Frankfurt, Germany, to Otto and Edith Frank. As the Nazis rose to power, her family moved to Amsterdam in 1933 to escape persecution.

In 1942, when Anne was 13 years old, her family went into hiding in a concealed annex of her father’s office building to avoid deportation to concentration camps. The annex, also known as the “Secret Annex,” was hidden behind a movable bookshelf. Anne lived there with her parents, her older sister Margot, the Van Pels family, and Fritz Pfeffer, a dentist.

During their two years in hiding, Anne kept a diary, which she addressed as “Kitty.” In her diary, she wrote about her daily experiences, thoughts, emotions, and reflections. Her writings showcased her intelligence, curiosity, and introspection, as well as her dreams of becoming a writer or journalist someday.

Tragically, on August 4, 1944, the hiding place was betrayed, and the inhabitants were arrested by the Nazis. They were sent to concentration camps. Anne and Margot were eventually transported to the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp, where they died of typhus in early 1945. Otto Frank was the only survivor among those who had been in hiding with them.

After the war, Otto Frank found Anne’s diary and decided to fulfill her wish of becoming a writer. He published her diary, which became known as “The Diary of a Young Girl” or “The Diary of Anne Frank.” The diary has since become one of the most famous and widely read accounts of the Holocaust, offering a deeply personal and poignant perspective on the atrocities of that era.

Anne Frank’s diary has been translated into many languages, and adapted into plays, films, and other works of art, making her story known to generations worldwide. Her courage, optimism, and resilience in the face of unimaginable hardship continue to inspire people to this day.

Anne Frank Quotes

1. “Laziness may appear attractive, but work gives satisfaction.”
— Anne Frank

2. “Whoever is happy will make others happy too.”
— Anne Frank

3. “I don’t think of all the misery but of the beauty that still remains.”
— Anne Frank

4. “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.”
— Anne Frank

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

6. “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.”
— Anne Frank

7. “The final forming of a person’s character lies in their own hands.”
— Anne Frank

8. “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

9. “Who would ever think that so much went on in the soul of a young girl?”
— Anne Frank

10. “I simply can’t build my hopes on a foundation of confusion, misery, and death… I think… peace and tranquillity will return again.”
— Anne Frank

11. “He who has courage and faith will never perish in misery!”
— Anne Frank

12. “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.”
— Anne Frank

13. “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.”
— Anne Frank

14. “I must uphold my ideals, for perhaps the time will come when I shall be able to carry them out.”
— Anne Frank

15. “I live in a crazy time.”
— Anne Frank

16. “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

17. “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.”
— Anne Frank

18. “Despite everything, I believe that people are really good at heart.”
— Anne Frank

19. “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.”
— Anne Frank

20. “In the long run, the sharpest weapon of all is a kind and gentle spirit.”
— Anne Frank

21. “No one has ever become poor by giving.”
— Anne Frank

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

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

24. “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

25. “Boys will be boys. And even that wouldn’t matter if only we could prevent girls from being girls.”
— Anne Frank

26. “When I write, I can shake off all my cares.”
— Anne Frank

27. “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.”
— Anne Frank

28. “Whoever doesn’t know it must learn and find by experience that ‘a quiet conscience makes one strong!’”
— Anne Frank

29. “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.”
— Anne Frank

30. “I have often been downcast but never in despair; I regard our hiding as a dangerous adventure, romantic and interesting at the same time. In my diary, I treat all the privations as amusing.”
— Anne Frank

31. “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

31. “If I haven’t any talent for writing books or newspaper articles, well, then I can always write for myself.”
— Anne Frank

32. “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

33. “This morning I lay in the bathtub thinking how wonderful it would be if I had a dog like Rin Tin Tin. I’d call him Rin Tin Tin too, and I’d take him to school with me, where he could stay in the janitor’s room or by the bicycle racks when the weather was good.”
— Anne Frank

34. “My lighter, more superficial side will always steal a march on the deeper side and therefore always win. You can’t imagine how often I’ve tried to push away this Anne, which is only half of what is known as Anne – to beat her down, hide her.”
— Anne Frank

35. “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.”
— Anne Frank

36. “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

37. “If I read a book that impresses me, I have to take myself firmly by the hand, before I mix with other people; otherwise they would think my mind rather queer.”
— Anne Frank