Words Worth Noting - October 10, 2023

“Quite honestly, I can’t imagine how anyone can say: ‘I’m weak,’ and then remain so. After all, if you know it, why not fight against it, why not try to train your character? The answer was: ‘Because it’s so much easier not to!’ This reply rather discouraged me. Easy? Does that mean that a lazy, deceitful life is an easy life? Oh, no, that can’t be true, it mustn’t be true, people can so easily be tempted by slackness... and by money.”

The diary entry for July 6, 1944 in The Diary of Anne Frank [prompted by a conversation with Peter Van Daan who said he thought he might later become a criminal or a gambler]