Anne Frank's diary is undoubtably one of the most influential artifacts from World War Two. I'm sure we all know of Anne Frank, but I'll share a little backstory of her just incase. She was a German born Jewish girl, but her family settled down in Amsterdam, the Netherlands in the early 1930s when the Nazis gained control over Germany. But by July of 1942 they were confined to hiding as the Nazis occupied the Netherlands, and Jewish persecution rates were on the rise. They hid in a room blocked by a bookcase in the place her father used to work. While in hiding Anne wrote in her diary; these writings included random thoughts, and events. In August of 1944 the groups' hiding area was given up and they were all transported to concentration camps where all of her immediate family, other than her father, later died. Anne just weeks before the camps' liberation. Her father discovered her diary had been kept by one of their helpers, and with his efforts was later published. It has now been translated into 60 different languages, and is one of the most discussed artifacts from that time period. I personally loved reading "The Diary of a Young Girl", and believe she has many quotes to live by, but here are a few of my favorites.
1. "Think of all the beauty still left around you and be happy."
2. "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."
3. "Whoever is happy will make others happy too."
4. "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!"
5. "How wonderful it is that nobody need wait a single moment before starting to improve the world."
6. "Laziness may appear attractive, but work gives satisfaction."
7. "I don't think of all the misery but of the beauty that still remains."
8. "Despite everything, I still believe that people are really good at heart."
9. "The final forming of a person's character lies in their own hands."
10. "We all live with the objective of being happy; our lives are all different and yet the same."
11. "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."
12. "No one has ever become poor by giving."
13. "He who has courage and faith will never perish in misery!"
14. "I've found that there is always some beauty left -- in nature, sunshine, freedom, in yourself; these can all help you.”
15. "I think a lot, but I don't say much."
I like to read these often, because they make me feel better about everything going on around me. I hope that now, you can find too, that these are 15 quotes to live by, just as I have.
