Elie Wiesel Quotes


I swore never to be silent whenever and wherever human beings endure suffering and humiliation. We must always take sides. Neutrality helps the oppressor, never the victim. Silence encourages the tormentor, never the tormented. Elie Wiesel Beings 379
Without memory, there is no culture. Without memory, there would be no civilization, no society, no future. Elie Wiesel Society 360
War is like night she said. It covers everything. Elie Wiesel Night 255
They are committing the greatest indignity human beings can inflict on one another telling people who have suffered excruciating pain and loss that their pain and loss were illusions. Brown vvi Elie Wiesel Humanity 215
In the beginning there was faith which is childish trust which is vain and illusion which is dangerous. Elie Wiesel Trust 203
Indifference to me is the epitome of all evil. Elie Wiesel Evil 167
No human race is superior; no religious faith is inferior. All collective judgments are wrong. Only racists make them. Elie Wiesel Faith 165
It all happened so fast. The ghetto. The deportation. The sealed cattle car. The fiery altar upon which the history of our people and the future of mankind were meant to be sacrificed. Elie Wiesel car 163
Human beings should be held accountable. Leave God alone. He has enough problems. Elie Wiesel alone 140
Indifference, to me, is the epitome of evil. Elie Wiesel Epitome 136
There are victories of the soul and spirit. Sometimes, even if you lose, you win. Elie Wiesel Sometimes 131
Bread soup these were my whole life. I was a body. Perhaps less than that even a starved stomach. The stomach alone was aware of the passage of time. Elie Wiesel Hunger 129
I decided to devote my life to telling the story because I felt that having survived I owe something to the dead. and anyone who does not remember betrays them again. Elie Wiesel death 126
A destruction, an annihilation that only man can provoke, only man can prevent. Elie Wiesel Annihilation 125
The opposite of love is not hate, it's indifference. Elie Wiesel Love 122
For the dead and the living, we must bear witness. Elie Wiesel Genocide 117
I have not lost faith in God. I have moments of anger and protest. Sometimes I've been closer to him for that reason. Elie Wiesel Anger 117
Friendship marks a life even more deeply than love. Love risks degenerating into obsession, friendship is never anything but sharing. Elie Wiesel Friend 116
Only one enemy is worse than despair: indifference. In every area of human creativity, indifference is the enemy; indifference of evil is worse than evil, because it is also sterile. Elie Wiesel Apathy 111
In Jewish history there are no coincidences. Elie Wiesel History 110
I told him that I did not believe that they could burn people in our age that humanity would never tolerate it . . . Elie Wiesel Holocaust 108
The world The world is not interested in us. Today everything is possible even the crematoria... Elie Wiesel Holocaust 99
There may be times when we are powerless to prevent injustice, but there must never be a time when we fail to protest. Elie Wiesel Time 95
Writing is not like painting where you add. It is not what you put on the canvas that the reader sees. Writing is more like a sculpture where you remove, you eliminate in order to make the work visible. Even those pages you remove somehow remain. Elie Wiesel Authors 95
Mankind must remember that peace is not God's gift to his creatures; peace is our gift to each other. Elie Wiesel Peace 90
I marvel at the resilience of the Jewish people. Their best characteristic is their desire to remember. No other people has such an obsession with memory. Elie Wiesel best 90
We are all brothers and we are all suffering the same fate. The same smoke floats over all our heads. Help one another. It is the only way to survive. pg. 39 Elie Wiesel Humanity 88
I rarely speak about God. To God, yes. I protest against Him. I shout at Him. But to open a discourse about the qualities of God, about the problems that God imposes, theodicy, no. And yet He is there, in silence, in filigree. Elie Wiesel God 87
Nobody is stronger, nobody is weaker than someone who came back. There is nothing you can do to such a person because whatever you could do is less than what has already been done to him. We have already paid the price. Elie Wiesel Survival 86
Not to transmit an experience is to betray it. Elie Wiesel Experience 85
We must always take sides. Neutrality helps the oppressor, never the victim. Silence encourages the tormentor, never the tormented. Elie Wiesel Activism 84
Because I remember, I despair. Because I remember, I have the duty to reject despair. Elie Wiesel Despair 83
Man, as long as he lives, is immortal. One minute before his death he shall be immortal. But one minute later, God wins. Elie Wiesel Death 78
I write to understand as much as to be understood. Elie Wiesel Understanding 77
Most people think that shadows follow, precede or surround beings or objects. The truth is that they also surround words, ideas, desires, deeds, impulses and memories. Elie Wiesel Beings 76
Ultimately the only power to which man should aspire is that which he exercises over himself. Elie Wiesel Power 75
Once you bring life into the world, you must protect it. We must protect it by changing the world. Elie Wiesel Life 75
Hope is like peace. It is not a gift from God. It is a gift only we can give one another. Elie Wiesel Peace 74
Because of indifference, one dies before one actually dies. Elie Wiesel Death 73
It all happened so fast. The ghetto. The deportation. The sealed cattle car. The fiery altar upon which the history of our people and the future of mankind were meant to be sacrificed. Elie Wiesel Car 71
Wherever men and women are persecuted because of their race, religion, or political views, that place must - at that moment - become the center of the universe. Elie Wiesel Religion 71
I do not recall a Jewish home without a book on the table. Elie Wiesel Home 69
I was very, very religious. And of course I wrote about it in 'Night.' I questioned God's silence. So I questioned. I don't have an answer for that. Does it mean that I stopped having faith? No. I have faith, but I question it. Elie Wiesel Faith 67
Some stories are true that never happened. Elie Wiesel Imagination 67
Peace is our gift to each other. Elie Wiesel Peace 65
Now, when I hear that Christians are getting together in order to defend the people of Israel, of course it brings joy to my heart. And it simply says, look, people have learned from history. Elie Wiesel History 60
No one may speak for the dead, no one may interpret their mutilated dreams and visions. Elie Wiesel Dream 59
No human being is illegal. Elie Wiesel Spiritual 58
He explained to me with great insistence that every question posessed a power that did not lie in the answer. Elie Wiesel Questions 56
Just as despair can come to one only from other human beings, hope, too, can be given to one only by other human beings. Elie Wiesel Hope 50

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