Diarist Quotes

“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.”

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

“People can tell you to keep your mouth shut, but that doesn't stop you from having your own opinion.”

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

“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.”

“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.”

“I want to go on living even after my death! And therefore I am grateful to God for this gift, this possibility of developing myself and of writing, of expressing all that is in me. I can shake off everything if I write; my sorrows disappear; my courage is reborn. But, and that is the great question, will I ever be able to write anything great, will I ever become a journalist or a writer?”

“Thinking about the suffering of those you hold dear can reduce you to tears; in fact, you could spend the whole day crying.”

“The weak die out and the strong will survive, and will live on forever”

“I have often been downcast, but never in despair.”

“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? The answer was: "Because it's so much easier not to!”

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

“I am what a romantic movie is to a profound thinker - a mere diversion, a comic interlude, something that is soon forgotten.”

“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.”

“Whoever is happy will make others happy too.”

“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.”

“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!”

“Sleep makes the silence and the terrible fear go by more quickly, helps pass the time, since it's impossible to kill.”

“Ordinary people don't know how much books can mean to someone who's cooped up.”

“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.”

“It's important for celebrities, environmentalists and world leaders to continue to increase education and eco-awareness through the forums provided to them naturally by virtue of being famous. Take inspiration from these words of wisdom from a Nazi-era teenager and concentration camp victim: "how wonderful it is that nobody need wait a single moment before starting to improve the world."”

“Memories mean more to me than dresses.”

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

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