Straight from today’s Quotle — here’s who really said it, and the story behind it. Play again

Who really said it

You can always, always give something, even if it is only kindness!

Attributed to Anne Frank 1929–1945 · German-born diarist, murdered at Bergen-Belsen aged 15
Attributed — the piece and date are documented, but no primary text was opened to confirm this English wording. In copyright

Wikiquote’s sourced entry ↗ attributes this passage to a short piece titled “Give!”, dated 26 March 1944, written while Anne Frank was in hiding in Amsterdam — and files it under Tales from the Secret Annex, not the diary. We are stopping short of calling it verified: every scanned edition of that collection is lending-restricted, so no primary text could be opened, and Wikiquote records this exact English wording only as a variant translation without naming its translator. The attribution to Anne Frank is not in doubt; the wording is what we could not confirm at the source.

Last verified 18 Sep 2026 · how we verify · spot an error?

For presentations

Put it on a slide

Unconfirmed quote & credit

“You can always, always give something, even if it is only kindness!” Attributed to Anne Frank, "Give!", 26 March 1944 — from Tales from the Secret Annex, not from her diary. The English wording is one of two circulating translations; the translator is not established. — Quotle.info

Can you use it?

Still under copyright (rights held by Anne Frank’s estate and the collection’s English publishers). A short, credited quote is generally fine for talks, teaching, and internal decks; for commercial, published, or large-scale reuse, get permission.

Image direction — grounded in this quote’s real context; paste into your image tool

In context

Evoking the world of Anne Frank — German-born diarist and essayist. Theme: "You can always, always give something, even if it is only kindness!". Atmospheric and restrained, cinematic directional light, a muted period-appropriate palette, fine grain and texture. Compose with generous empty space for the quote and a small credit line. No lettering in the image itself.

Minimalist

Minimalist editorial slide for the quote "You can always, always give something, even if it is only kindness!". Clean background, a single muted accent color, generous negative space, subtle paper or linen texture, no literal illustration — let the words carry it. Reserve clear space for a serif quote and a small credit line. No lettering in the image itself.

Provenance

The piece it comes from

Piece
“Give!” (“Geef!”)
Written
26 March 1944, in the annex at Prinsengracht 263, Amsterdam
Collected in
Tales from the Secret Annex — not The Diary of a Young Girl
Status
Attributed — no edition of the collection could be opened to confirm the wording

How wonderful it is that nobody need wait a single moment before beginning to improve the world! […] You can always, always give something, even if it is only kindness! Ellipsis as Wikiquote prints it

The passage as Wikiquote ↗ gives this translation. Its other rendering of the same lines reads “How wonderful it is that no one has to wait… You can always — always — give something, even if it’s a simple act of kindness!”

Wikiquote: Anne Frank, Tales from the Secret Annex

How we verified this

  • The piece and the date — Wikiquote’s Anne Frank entry ↗ attributes this passage to “Give!” (26 March 1944) and prints both English renderings, ours as the variant translation.
  • Not the diary — Wikiquote keeps The Diary of a Young Girl and Tales from the Secret Annex ↗ in separate sections, and files “Give!” under the latter. The short pieces were written into a separate journal begun on 2 September 1943 and recovered with her other manuscripts after her arrest.
  • The translations — library catalogue records show two English lineages for the collection: Ralph Manheim and Michel Mok ↗ and, for the revised 2003 edition, Susan Massotty ↗. We could not open either text — both are lending-restricted — so we do not say which produced this wording.
In copyright

Firmly in copyright. Tales from the Secret Annex was first published in the Netherlands in 1949, with an expanded edition in 1960 and a complete edition in 1982 — all long after the 1931 United States public-domain cutoff — and the English translations are later still. Nothing here is free to reuse.

Rights status is our research, not legal advice — and copyright varies by country and edition. For commercial or published use, confirm with the rightsholder. See terms.

Fact-check

Genuine — but not from the diary

The attribution to Anne Frank is sound. What is nearly always wrong is the book: this is not a diary entry, and the English wording is one of two competing translations rather than a fixed sentence.

“Anne Frank’s diary” mis-sourced

“Give!” belongs to Tales from the Secret Annex ↗, the separate collection of stories and essays, which Wikiquote ↗ keeps in its own section away from the diary.

“even if it’s a simple act of kindness!” translation, not the original

The same Dutch sentence, rendered differently. Neither English form is “the” quotation — both are translations, and they differ in more than punctuation.

Anne Frank Hers, and dated

Wikiquote attributes the piece to her and dates it 26 March 1944, and Tales from the Secret Annex ↗ was recovered with the rest of her manuscripts from the annex. What is unconfirmed is the English wording, not the author.

The English translation No primary source located

Both English lineages of the collection — Manheim and Mok ↗ and Massotty ↗ — are lending-restricted on the Internet Archive, so neither text could be read. We do not know which produced this wording.

Hers, and dated — just not a diary entry, and not a wording we could confirm at the source. The piece is “Give!”, 26 March 1944, collected in Tales from the Secret Annex ↗.

Context

Why it mattered

She wrote it four months before the arrest, at fourteen, hidden in a building she could not leave. “Give!” is an argument, not a diary note — a short essay about what people owe each other, written by someone with almost nothing left to give.

The line that travels is the last one, but the piece around it is harder and better: it presses the reader on why the poor are tolerated at all, and insists nobody has to wait for permission to begin.

Written at fourteen, in hiding, four months before the arrest.

Read the full story

Alongside the diary, Anne kept a separate journal from 2 September 1943 for stories, essays and memories — some invented, some about life in the annex, some about her school days before it. “Give!” is one of the essays, and the collection also holds the first chapters of a novel she never finished.

All of it was left on the floor when the family was taken on 4 August 1944, and gathered up by Miep Gies and Bep Voskuijl. The stories were first published in the Netherlands in 1949, expanded in 1960, and issued complete in 1982.

Explore

Filed under

More provenance-checked quotes on the same theme, each with its reuse status.

Kindness Hope Gratitude

Go further

Dig deeper

Trusted places to keep pulling the thread — primary archives, fact-checks, and scholarship. We show how we used each one before you leave.

Anne Frank — Tales from the Secret Annexen.wikiquote.org

Sourced quotations, with “Give!” (26 March 1944) and both English renderings of this passage.
Tales from the Secret Annexen.wikipedia.org

The collection: what it contains, the journal begun 2 September 1943, and its 1949 / 1960 / 1982 publication history.
Anne Frank’s Tales from the Secret Annex (Manheim & Mok)archive.org

Catalogue record for the Ralph Manheim and Michel Mok translation.
Anne Frank’s Tales from the Secret Annex (Massotty, 2003)archive.org

Catalogue record for the revised edition translated by Susan Massotty.
Anne Franken.wikipedia.org

Her life, the years in hiding, and the recovery of her manuscripts.
The Diary of a Young Girlen.wikipedia.org

The diary proper — the book this passage is usually, and wrongly, said to come from.

The author

About Anne Frank

Anne Frank

1929–1945 · German-born diarist and essayist

Anne Frank spent twenty-five months hidden in an Amsterdam annex, where she wrote far more than the diary she is known for: short stories, essays, recollections and the opening chapters of a novel. She was fourteen when she wrote “Give!”. She was arrested that August and died at Bergen-Belsen the following year, and the manuscripts survived only because Miep Gies and Bep Voskuijl gathered them from the floor of the emptied hiding place.

For writers & researchers

Cite this

The primary source (Chicago)

Anne Frank, “Give!” (26 March 1944), in Tales from the Secret Annex, first published in Dutch in 1949; attributed per Wikiquote, “Anne Frank.” Quoted here in the English variant translation Wikiquote records. The translator of this wording is not established, and no edition of the collection was available to consult.

This verification page

Quotle.info. “Who really said ‘You can always, always give something, even if it is only kindness!’?” Last verified 18 Sep 2026. https://quotle.info/who-said/you-can-always-always-give-something-even-if-it-is-only/

Something wrong on this page?

Tell us what’s off. A link helps but isn’t required — “this is the wrong person” is a useful report on its own. Nothing here changes the page directly; it goes to our review queue and a human checks it.

Only used to tell you if we act on your report. We never sell or share it.

Copied