65 Anne Frank Quotes From Her Diary About Life & Hope (2021)

Looking for thought-provoking Anne Frank quotes about life and humanity?

Anne Frank was a world-famous German-born diarist and one of the most discussed Jewish victims of the Holocaust. Her work, The Diary of Anne Frank, documents her life in hiding from 1942 to 1944, and has been read by millions.

Anne was born in Frankfurt, Germany, on June 12, 1929. At the age of four and a half, she moved with her family to Amsterdam, fleeing Nazi persecution of Jews.  She hid from the Nazis for 2 years before she was discovered and moved to the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp, where she died in 1945.

Anne Frank is an inspirational figure for people all over the world and is a testament to the power of expression. We hope you love these Anne Frank quotes as much as we do!

Don’t forget to also read these Viktor Frankl quotes on life, suffering and success.

Inspirational Anne Frank Quotes

1. “Whoever is happy will make others happy too.” – Anne Frank

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

3. “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

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.” – Anne Frank

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

6. “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

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

8. “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.” – Anne Frank

9. “Laziness may appear attractive, but work gives satisfaction.” – Anne Frank

The Diary of Anne Frank Quotes

10. “In spite of everything I still believe that people are really good at heart. I simply can’t build up my hopes on a foundation consisting of confusion, misery and death.” – Anne Frank

11. “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.” – Anne Frank

12. “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.” – Anne Frank

13. “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.” – Anne Frank

14. “Women should be respected as well! 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

You might also like these memorable Holocaust quotes for remembering

Anne Frank Quotes about dreams and life

15. “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

16. “What is done cannot be undone, but one can prevent it happening again.” – Anne Frank

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

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

19. “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

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

Anne Frank quotes that will change the way you think

21. “I can shake off everything as I write; my sorrows disappear, my courage is reborn.” – Anne Frank

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

23. “No one has ever become poor by giving.” – Anne Frank

24. “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.” – Anne Frank

25. “Because paper has more patience than people.” – Anne Frank

26. “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

27. “Look at how a single candle can both defy and define the darkness.” – Anne Frank

28. “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

29. “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.” – Anne Frank

Anne Frank quotes about humanity

30. “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.” – Anne Frank

31. “Riches, prestige, everything can be lost. But the happiness in your heart can only be dimmed; it will always be there as long as you live, to make you happy again.” – Anne Frank

32. “Whenever you’re feeling lonely or sad, try going to the loft on a beautiful day and looking outside. Not at the houses and the rooftops, but at the sky. As long as you can look fearlessly at the sky, you’ll know that your pure within and will find happiness once more.” – Anne Frank

33. “Still,” she writes, “what does that matter? I want to write, but more than that, I want to bring out all kinds of things that lie buried deep in my heart.” – Anne Frank

34. “The first thing I put in was this diary, then hair curlers, handkerchiefs, schoolbooks, a comb, old letters; I put in the craziest things with the idea that we were going into hiding. But I’m not sorry, memories mean more to me than dresses.” – Anne Frank

35. “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 only then can you judge their true characters!” – Anne Frank

36. “Nice people, the Germans! To think that I was once one of them too! No, Hitler took away our nationality long ago. In fact, Germans and Jews are the greatest enemies in the world.” – Anne Frank

37. “This is not the end. It is not even the beginning of the end. But it is, perhaps, the end of the beginning.” – Anne Frank

Anne Frank quotes about hope

38. “I feel wicked sleeping in a warm bed, while my dearest friends have been knocked down or have fallen into a gutter somewhere out in the cold night. I get frightened when I think of close friends who have now been delivered into the hands of the cruelest brutes that walk the earth. And all because they are Jews!” – Anne Frank

39. “I could go on for hours about all the suffering the war has brought, but then I would only make myself more dejected. There is nothing we can do but wait as calmly as we can till the misery comes to an end. Jews and Christians wait, the whole earth waits; and there are many who wait for death.” – Anne Frank

40. “If I just think of how we live here, I usually come to the conclusion that it is a paradise compared with how other Jews who are not in hiding must be living.” – Anne Frank

41. “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.” – Anne Frank

42. “I see the eight of us in the Annex as if we were a patch of blue sky surrounded by menacing black clouds. . . . [They loom] 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

Anne Frank quotes to elevate your perspective

43. “I sometimes wonder if anyone will ever understand what I mean, if anyone will ever overlook my ingratitude and not worry about whether or not I’m Jewish and merely see me as a teenager badly in need of some good, plain fun.” – Anne Frank

44. “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

Anne Frank Quotes about family and love

45. “I get cross, then sad, and finally end up turning my heart inside out, the bad part on the outside and the good part on the inside, 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.” – Anne Frank

46. “Would anyone, either Jew or non-Jew, understand this about me, that I am simply a young girl badly in need of some rollicking fun?” – Anne Frank

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

48. “Earning happiness means doing good and working, not speculating and being lazy. Laziness may look inviting, but only work gives you true satisfaction.”― Anne Frank

49. “The weak fall, but the strong will remain and never go under!”― Anne Frank

50. “Sympathy, Love, Fortune… We all have these qualities but still tend to not use them!”― Anne Frank

Anne Frank quotes that will make you think differently

51. “The weak die out and the strong will survive, and will live on forever.”
― Anne Frank

52. “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!”― Anne Frank

53. “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.”― Anne Frank

54. “The young are not afraid of telling the truth.”― Anne Frank

55. “People who have a religion should be glad, for not everyone has the gift of believing in heavenly things.”― Anne Frank
If you’re enjoying these quotes, make sure to read our collection of heaven quotes to inspire kindness.

56. “In the future I’m going to devote less time to sentimentality and more time to reality.”― Anne Frank

57. “There’s something happening everyday, but I’m too tired and lazy to write it all down.”― Anne Frank

58. “A person can be lonely even if he is loved by many people, because he is still not the “One and Only” to anyone.”― Anne Frank

59. “The reason for my starting a diary is that I have no real friend.”― Anne Frank

60. “Our lives are fashioned by our choices. First, we make our choices. Then our choices make us.”― Anne Frank

More Anne Frank quotes and sayings

61. “Dead people receive more flowers than the living ones because regret is stronger than gratitude.” – Anne Frank

62. “Work, love, courage and hope, Make me good and help me cope!” – Anne Frank

63. “So much has happened it’s as if the whole world had suddenly turned upside down.” – Anne Frank

64. “Things were different when I was growing up.” – Anne Frank

65. “Cheer up, keep your spirits high, things are bound to get better!” – Anne Frank

66. “Everyone has to decide for himself how to get the better of his own mood.” – Anne Frank

Insightful Anne Frank Quotes

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

68. “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

69. “There’s only one rule you need to remember: laugh at everything and forget everybody else! It sound egotistical, but it’s actually the only cure for those suffering from self-pity.” – Anne Frank

70. “Human greatness does not lie in wealth or power, but in character and goodness.” – Anne Frank

71. “Where there’s hope, there’s life. It fills us with fresh courage and makes us strong again.” – Anne Frank

72. “Those who have courage and faith shall never perish in misery.” – Anne Frank

73. “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?” – Anne Frank

74. “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

75. “An empty day, though clear and bright, is just as dark as any night.” – Anne Frank

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

Which Anne Frank quotes are your favorite?

Although she lived a relatively short life, Anne Frank is an inspiration to many. Her life ended in a Nazi death camp but her story still continues to fascinate and resonate.

Anne Frank’s diary is popular throughout the world and has become a symbol of hope and aspiration for the future. Hopefully, the above quotes have inspired and uplifted your spirits.

Did you enjoy these Anne Frank quotes? Which of the quotes was your favorite? Tell us in the comment section below. We would love to hear all about it.