How to Gain Insight from a Youth

The wisdom of a teen in time of war

One of the most widely read, influential writers of the twentieth century was a German Jewish teenager who did not live to see her work published. She filled her diary and notebooks with wisdom and awareness beyond her young age.

The family remained hidden for more than two years in a secret attic apartment in Amsterdam. The building had been owned by her father, Otto Frank, before the Germans made him give up his company. To this day, more than a million people each year visit the family’s hiding place, now called the Anne Frank House. Frank referred to it in her writing as the Secret Annex.

Annelies Marie Frank, commonly known as Anne Frank, was born in Frankfurt, Germany in 1929. Her life was short, dying in a German concentration camp at only 15 years of age in 1945.

Anne Frank’s The Diary of a Young Girl has been sold worldwide since it was first published in 1947. To date, it has been translated into 70 languages with more than 30 million copies sold.

She was very mature for her age with profound insights for such a young girl. Despite their circumstances, her writing is inspiring and filled with hope. It’s time now to enjoy some of her words of wisdom.

On Being Young

“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.”

“Although I’m only fourteen, I know quite well what I want, I know who is right and who is wrong. I have my opinions, my own ideas and principles, and although it may sound pretty mad from an adolescent, I feel more of a person than a child, I feel quite independent of anyone.”

“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.”

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

“The young are not afraid of telling the truth.”

“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?”

“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.”

Courage

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

“Those who have courage and faith shall never perish in misery.”

“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.”

Happiness and Beauty

“Think of all the beauty still left around you and be happy.”

“Whoever is happy will make others happy.”

“I don’t think of all the misery, but of the beauty that still remains.”

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

“Riches can all be lost, but that happiness in your own heart can only be veiled, and it will still bring you happiness again, as long as you live. As long as you can look fearlessly up into the heavens, as long as you know that you are pure within, and that you will still find happiness.”

God

“I’ve found that there is always some beauty left — in nature, sunshine, freedom, in yourself; these can all help you. Look at these things, then you find yourself again, and God, and then you regain your balance.”

“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.”

Love

“Sympathy, love, fortune… We all have these qualities but still tend to not use them!”

“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!”

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

“No one has ever become poor by giving.”

Character

“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?”

“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.”

“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.”

Optimism

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

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

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

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“Whoever doesn’t know it must learn and find by experience that a quiet conscience makes one strong!”

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

“Laziness may appear attractive, but work gives satisfaction.”

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

“As long as this exists, this sunshine and this cloudless sky, and as long as I can enjoy it, how can I be sad?”

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“I see the world being slowly transformed into a wilderness; I hear the approaching thunder that, one day, will destroy us too. I feel the suffering of millions. And yet, when I look up at the sky, I somehow feel that everything will change for the better, that this cruelty too shall end, that peace and tranquility will return once more.”

“I simply can’t build my hopes on a foundation of confusion, misery and death… I think… peace and tranquillity will return again.”

“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.”

Anytime you need to add a little hope to your life, go back and read Frank’s words. They will not only fill you with hope but will inspire you to go forward into your life, with gratefulness.

Bill Abbate Leadership Writer and Editor in ILLUMINATION.

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