I shall remember the look in Margot's eyes all my life.
Otto FrankRead
We don't need the Nazis to destroy us. We're destroying ourselves.
Interpretation
The quote emphasizes that internal conflicts and self-destructive behaviors can be more damaging than external threats.
Otto Frank's quote reflects a deep understanding of human nature and societal issues, suggesting that often, it is not external forces but our own actions and choices that lead to our downfall. In this context, the reference to the Nazis serves as a stark reminder of the capacity for human cruelty, while the real concern lies in how we may be complicit in our own destruction through apathy, hatred, and division among ourselves.
In practice
In a speech about personal responsibility, one might use this quote to emphasize the importance of self-awareness.
I shall remember the look in Margot's eyes all my life.
Understand then all of you, especially the young, that to want to impose an imaginary state of government on others by violence is not only a vulgar superstition, but even a criminal work. Understand that this work, far from assuring the well-being of humanity is only a lie, a more or less unconscious hypocrisy, camouflaging the lowest passions we posses.
Our desire to conform is greater than our respect for objective facts.
Time cures you first, and then it kills you.
Tradition, long conditioned thinking, can bring about a fixation, a concept that one readily accepts, perhaps not with a great deal of thought.
Posterity will pay everyone their due.
We ought to do good to others as simply as a horse runs, or a bee makes honey, or a vine bears grapes season after season without thinking of the grapes it has borne.
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