Quotes from 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.

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.

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

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 reason for my starting a diary is that I have no real friend.

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.

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.

I've learned one thing: you can only really get to know a person after a row. Only then can you judge their true character!

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.

How true Daddy's words were when he said: all children must look after their own upbringing. 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.

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.

I want be a writer

The young are not afraid of telling the truth.

Who else but me is ever going to read these letters?

Looking back, I realize that this period of my life has irrevocably come to a close; my happy-go-lucky, carefree schooldays are gone forever. I don't even miss them. I've outgrown them. I can no longer just kid around, since my serious side is always there.

I get cross, then sad, and finally end up turning my heart inside out, and keep trying to find a way to become what I'd like to be and what I could be if....if only there were no other people in the world.

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

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

leave me in peace, let me sleep one night at least without my pillow being wet with tears, my eyes burning and my head throbbing

In the future I'm going to devote less time to sentimentality and more time to reality.

It must be awful to feel you're not needed.

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.

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.

Unless you write yourself, you can't know how wonderful it is; I always used to bemoan the fact that I couldn't draw, but now I'm overjoyed that at least I can write. And if I don't have the talent to write books or newspaper articles, I can always write for myself. But I want to achieve more than that.