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Life & Wisdom Quote by Anne Frank

"Think of all the beauty still left around you, and be happy"

About this Quote

“Think of all the beauty still left around you and be happy” lands with the soft force of a dare. Anne Frank isn’t offering a greeting-card mantra; she’s issuing instructions for survival while the world is actively trying to erase her. The line works because it refuses the expected posture of tragedy. It doesn’t deny fear or brutality, but it refuses to let them monopolize the mind.

The intent is practical as much as philosophical: redirect attention, reclaim agency. In hiding, where daily life is governed by footsteps overhead and the threat of discovery, “think” becomes an action, almost a muscle you train. Beauty, here, isn’t grand scenery; it’s whatever remains accessible in confinement: a patch of sky, a laugh, the steadiness of routine, the private freedom of observation. By saying “still left,” she acknowledges loss without cataloging it. The phrase implies depletion, a shrinking world - and yet insists there is remainder.

The subtext is audacious. Happiness is framed not as a reward for safety but as a chosen stance, a form of quiet resistance against the logic of terror. To be happy in these conditions isn’t naive; it’s insurgent. It asserts: you can control my body, my movement, even my future, but you don’t get automatic rights to my interior life.

Context sharpens everything. Frank’s diary is famous because it preserves a teenage consciousness under siege, full of mood swings, humor, resentment, hope. This line captures that tension: a young writer practicing discipline, trying to keep her humanity intact by treating attention itself as a moral decision.

Quote Details

TopicHappiness
SourceAnne Frank, The Diary of a Young Girl (Het Achterhuis) — line appears in her published diary: "Think of all the beauty still left around you and be happy".
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Citation Formats

APA Style (7th ed.)
Frank, Anne. (2026, February 20). Think of all the beauty still left around you, and be happy. FixQuotes. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/think-of-all-the-beauty-still-left-around-you-and-3889/

Chicago Style
Frank, Anne. "Think of all the beauty still left around you, and be happy." FixQuotes. February 20, 2026. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/think-of-all-the-beauty-still-left-around-you-and-3889/.

MLA Style (9th ed.)
"Think of all the beauty still left around you, and be happy." FixQuotes, 20 Feb. 2026, https://fixquotes.com/quotes/think-of-all-the-beauty-still-left-around-you-and-3889/. Accessed 21 Feb. 2026.

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About the Author

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Anne Frank (June 12, 1929 - 1945) was a Writer from Germany.

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