Monday, October 12, 2020

A Quote From Anne Frank

By Anne Frank

Diary Entry, July 15, 1944

It's utterly impossible for me to build my life on a foundation of chaos, suffering and death. 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 will end, that peace and tranquility will return once more.”

I've never read the entire diary, nor entered the house where she had been in hiding. I saw it though, from the outside, and I walked the neighborhood in Amsterdam. The diary, towards the end, includes quotes much darker than this. Even such irrepressible optimism as is expressed above must finally yield to the horrors of life.

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