Miep Gies Quotations

Imagine young people would grow up with the feeling that you have to be a hero to do your human duty. I am afraid nobody would ever help other people, because who is a hero?

Too often, when people are in trouble they look for scapegoats.

Children who use the Internet are much better informed than when I was young. Use this to your advantage.

I certainly think that another Holocaust can happen again. It did already occur; think of Cambodia, Rwanda, and Bosnia.

We did our duty as human beings: helping people in need.

You are the heroes. You are the heroes everyday.

I myself am just an ordinary woman. I simply had no choice.

I have never wanted special attention. I was only willing to do what was asked of me and what seemed necessary at the time.

Permanent remorse about failing to do your human duty, in my opinion, can be worse than losing your life.

Real strength is being able to carry on when times are hard,

People should never think that you have to be a very special person to help those who need you.

I am not a hero. I just did what any decent person would have done.

I don't want to be considered a hero.... Imagine [if] young people would grow up with the feeling that you have to be a hero to do your human duty. I am afraid nobody would ever help other people, because who is a hero? I was not. I was just an ordinary housewife and secretary.

But even an ordinary secretary or a housewife or a teenager can, within their own small ways, turn on a small light in a dark room.