25 Quotes by Annejet van der Zijl

Imagine that your own children, who you brought into the world, just walk past you. It’s enough to make anybody crazy.

And if there was one thing that was truly American, it was the belief that it was always possible to start again.

To my surprise, nineteenth-century folk, always presented as Puritan and narrow-minded, turned out also to be energetic, tough, and sociable. It made me realize that there are major social and personal advantages to be had if people are capable of controlling themselves, being disciplined, and, if necessary, sacrificing themselves for the greater good. In that respect, we people of today might be able to learn more from the Victorians than we think.

Those who can best cope with setbacks have the greatest chance of fortune.

Roosevelt may have been a Republican, but he was a lot more sensitive to the changing times than his predecessor. He started regulating banks, the food industry, and railway trusts; introduced higher taxes; and for the first time consulted the trade unions, which the government had looked upon with suspicion up to then.

It’s not the strongest of the species that survives, neither is it the most intelligent that survives. It is the most adaptable to change.

March 1, 1943, about one year after the Wannsee Conference, when the Entjudung, the “Aryanization” of Holland, was virtually complete.