Diarist Quotes

But feelings can't be ignored, no matter how unjust or ungrateful they seem.

I can recapture everything when I write, my thoughts, my ideals and my fantasies.

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.

And you can always, always, give kindness

Human greatness does not lie in wealth or power, but in character and goodness.

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.

How wonderful it is that we can start doing good at this very moment.

There's plenty of room for everyone in the world. Enough money, riches, and beauty for all to share. God has made enought for everyone, so let us all begin then by sharing it fairly.

I don't believe that the big men, the politicians and capitalists alone, are guilty of war. Oh no, the little man is just as guilty, otherwise the peoples of the world would have risen in revolt long ago!

I believe that in the course of the next century the notion that it's a woman's duty to have children will change and make way for the respect and admiration of all women, who bear their burdens without complaint or a lot of pompous words!

Live with the objective of being happy.

Ordinary people simply don't know what books mean to us, shut up here. Reading, learning, and the radio are our amusements.

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

I wish to go on living even after my death.

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

As long as you can look fearlessly at the sky, you'll know that your pure within and will find happiness once more.

You can always-always-give something, even if it's a simple act of kindness! If everyone were to give in this way and didn't scrimp on kindly words, there would be much more love and justice in the world!

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.

When I write I can shake off all my cares. My sorrow disappears, my spirits are revived.

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.

The question is very understandable, but no one has found a satisfactory answer to it so far. Yes, why do they make still more gigantic planes, still heavier bombs and, at the same time, prefabricated houses for reconstruction? Why should millions be spent daily on the war and yet there's not a penny available for medical services, artists, or for poor people? Why do some people have to starve, while there are surpluses rotting in other parts of the world? Oh, why are people so crazy?

There's in people simply an urge to destroy, an urge to kill, to murder and rage, and until all mankind, without exception, undergoes a great change, wars will be waged, everything that has been built up, cultivated, and grown will be destroyed and disfigured, after which mankind will have to begin all over again

I have often been downcast, but never in despair.

The young are not afraid of telling the truth.

The best remedy for those who are afraid, lonely or unhappy is to go outside

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.

Boys will be boys. And even that wouldn't matter if only we could prevent girls from being girls.

I never utter my real feelings about anything. My lighter, superficial side will always be too quick for the deeper side of me, and that's why it always wins.

An empty day, though clear and bright, Is just as dark as any night.

Where there's hope, there's life. It fills us with fresh courage and makes us strong again.

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.

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!

I can't let them see my doubts, or the wounds they've inflicted on me.

Parents can only advise their children or point them in the right direction. Ultimately people shape their own characters.

If the truth is told, things are just as bad as you yourself care to make them.

If I'm engrossed in a book, I have to rearrange my thoughts before I can mingle with other people, because otherwise they might think I was strange.

One gets on better in life if one is not over modest.

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.

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.

As long as you're in the food business, why not make sweets?

by thinking, nobody can ever get worse but will only get better.

Riches, power and fame last only for a few years! Why do people cling so desperately to these transitory things? Why can't people who have more than they need for themselves give that surplus to their fellow citizens? Why should some people have such a hard time during their few years on this earth?

I simply can't imagine the world will ever be normal again for us. I do talk about "after the war," but it's as if I'm talking about a castle in the air, something that can never come true.

You can always give something, even if it is only kindness.

I must uphold my ideals, for perhaps the time will come when I shall be able to carry them out.

How lovely to think that no one need wait a moment, we can start now, start slowly changing the world!

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 want friends, not admirers. People who respect me for my character and my deeds, not my flattering smile. The circle around me would be much smaller, but what does that matter, as long as they're sincere?

I think a lot, but I don't say much.

People who give will never be poor.

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

You can get around to meaningful conversations more quickly in the dark than with the sun tickling your face.

I have always been the dunce, the never-do-well of the family, I've always have to pay double for my deeds, first with the scolding and then again because of the way my feelings are hurt.

The world has plenty of room, riches, money and beauty ... Let us begin by dividing it more fairly.

We lit the stove a few days ago and the entire room is filled with smoke. I prefer central heating, and I'm probably not the only one.

There's only one rule you need to remember: laugh at everything and foget everybody else! It sound egotistical, but it's actually the only cure for those suffering from self-pity.

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.

Sometimes I'm so deeply buried under self-reproaches that I long for a word of comfort to help me dig myself out again.

I don't think of all the misery but of the beauty that still remains.

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.