Elie Wiesel Quotes

Knowledge does not corrupt, unless it is arrogant; but then it is not true knowledge. ~ Elie Wiesel

It's over. God is no longer with us." And as though he regretted having uttered such words so coldly, so dryly, he added in his broken voice, "I know. No one has the right to say things like that. I know that very well. Man is too insignificant, too limited, to even try to comprehend God's mysterious ways. But what can someone like myself do? I'm neither a sage nor a just man. I am not a saint. I'm a simple creature of flesh and bone. I suffer hell in my soul and my flesh. I also have eyes and I see what is being done here. Where is God's mercy? Where's God? How can I believe, how can anyone believe in this God of Mercy? ~ Elie Wiesel

The individual is not a cog in a monstrous machine; it is within his power to modify the very laws which imprison him and the very relationship maintained by the Judge with the accused and witnesses. If it is true, as the Baal Shem says, that it is possible for man to hide the light of dawn emanating from the forest simply by shielding his eyes with his hands, still it is no less true that he can rediscover it by merely moving his hands. ~ Elie Wiesel

Our obligation is to give meaning to life and in doing so to overcome the passive, indifferent life. ~ Elie Wiesel

Be careful with words, they're dangerous. Be wary of them. They begat either demons or angels. It's up to you to give life to one or the other. Be careful, I tell you, nothing is as dangerous as giving free rein to words ~ Elie Wiesel

Luz Castro "And then i explain that the world did know and remained silent. and that is why I swore never to be silent whenever and wherever human beings endure suffering and humiliation. We must take sides. NEUTRALITY HELPS THE OPPRESSOR, NEVER THE VICTIM. SILENCE ENCOURAGES THE TORMENTOR, NEVER THE TORMENTED. Sometimes we must interfere. When human lives are endangered, when human dignity is in jeopardy, national borders and sensitivities become irrelevant. Wherever men and women persecuted because of their race, religion, or political views, that place must- at that moment- become the center of the universe." Elie Wiesel (from his speech when given the Nobel Peace Prize.) ~ Elie Wiesel

The opposite of love is not hate, but indifference. Indifference creates evil. Hatred is evil itself. Indifference is what allows evil to be strong, what gives it power. ~ Elie Wiesel

I was inspired by the marvelous example of Giacometti, the great sculptor. He always said that his dream was to do a bust so small that it could enter a matchbook, but so heavy that no one could lift it. That's what a good book should be. ~ Elie Wiesel

Because of indifference, one dies before one actually dies. ~ Elie Wiesel

Often we feel the need to say that a book isn't just about a particular time or place but is about the human spirit. People say this of Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl, or Night by Elie Wiesel, or A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier by Ishmael Beah. ~ Will Schwalbe

This is the bread of affliction which our forefathers ate in the land of Egypt. Let all those who are hungry come and eat with us. Let all those who are in need come and share our meal. This year we are here. Next year may we all be in the land of Israel. ~ Elie Wiesel

The knowledge that I have acquired must not remain imprisoned in my brain. I owe it to many men and women to do something with it. I feel the need to pay back what was given to me. Call it gratitude. ~ Elie Wiesel

When a person doesn't have gratitude, something is missing in his or her humanity. A person can almost be defined by his or her attitude toward gratitude. ~ Elie Wiesel

One person of integrity can make a difference. ~ Elie Wiesel

You're at the bottom of the mountain. May you climb up without suffering. ~ Elie Wiesel

You're shaking ... so am I. It's because of Jerusalem, isn't it? One doesn't go to Jerusalem, one returns to it. That's one of its mysteries. ~ Elie Wiesel

I feel that books, just like people, have a destiny. Some invite sorrow, others joy, some both. ~ Elie Wiesel

What is man? Ally of God or simply his toy? His triumph or his fall? ~ Elie Wiesel

And yet, this tale about despair becomes a story against despair. ~ Elie Wiesel

One more stab to the heart, one more reason to hate. One less reason to live. ~ Elie Wiesel

Each man was his own executioner and his own victim. ~ Elie Wiesel

My good friends, we are all waiting. We are waiting, if not for the Messiah, as such, we are waiting for the messianic moment. And the messianic moment is what each and every one of us tries to build, meaning a certain area of humanity that links us to all those who are human and, therefore, desperately trying to fight despair as humanly as possible and-I hope-with some measure of success. ~ Elie Wiesel

For the survivor who chooses to testify, it is clear: his duty is to bear witness for the dead and for the living. ~ Elie Wiesel

I never teach the same course twice. ~ Elie Wiesel

Today again the teacher is the important thing, but on the other hand anti-Semitism is growing today. No doubt about it. All over the world, especially in Europe, and it's true they begin with anti-Israeli attitudes and then it's so strong that it runs over and becomes anti-Semitic. ~ Elie Wiesel

I remember those faces of people who were good I saw that. I saw a father who gave his bread to his son and his son gave back the bread to his father. That, to me, was such a defeat of the enemies, will of the enemies, theories of the enemies, aspirations, here [in Auschwitz]. ~ Elie Wiesel

Elie Wiesel says that neutrality only helps the oppressor, never the victim. And I think you can apply that to journalism. ~ Jorge Ramos

Always remember, my good friends, that there is one sin we must never commit, and it is to humiliate another person or to allow another person to be humiliated in our presence without us screaming and shouting and protesting. ~ Elie Wiesel

Simply because, one hand, there are the haters, The hater has power. All we can do is oppose it, or one becomes an accomplice. ~ Elie Wiesel

Because I remember, I despair. Because I remember, I have the duty to reject despair. ~ Elie Wiesel

Indifference elicits no response. Indifference is not a response. Indifference is not a beginning; it is an end. And, therefore, indifference is always the friend of the enemy, for it benefits the aggressor - never his victim, whose pain is magnified when he or she feels forgotten. ~ Elie Wiesel

In order to fly, you have to give up the ground you are standing on. ~ Elie Wiesel

I've worked with five Presidents in America, all of them I ask the same question always: Why didn't the American allies bomb the railways going to Auschwitz? ~ Elie Wiesel

Only the guilty are guilty. Their children are not. ~ Elie Wiesel

Though we talk peace, we wage war. Sometimes we even wage war in the name of peace. Does that seem paradoxical? Well, war is not afraid of paradoxes. ~ Elie Wiesel

Are you forgetting that losing a game is an error or a lesson, but losing one's time is a sin? ~ Elie Wiesel

My ambition really was, even as a child, to be a writer, a commentator, and a teacher, but a teacher of Talmud. ~ Elie Wiesel

There is much to be done, there is much that can be done ... one person of integrity can make a difference, a difference of life and death. As long as one dissident is in prison, our freedom will not be true. As long as one child is hungry, our lives will be filled with anguish and shame. What all these victims need above all is to know that they are not alone; that we are not forgetting them, that when their voices are stifled we shall lend them ours, that while their freedom depends on ours, the quality of our freedom depends on theirs. ~ Elie Wiesel

Suffering confers no privileges; it is what one does with suffering that matters. ~ Elie Wiesel, Night

I cannot cure everybody. I cannot help everybody. But to tell the lonely person that I am not far or different from that lonely person, that I am with him or her, that's all I think we can do and we should do. ~ Elie Wiesel

Take sides. Neutrality always serves the oppressor and never the oppressed. ~ Elie Wiesel

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

I'm going to teach you the art of distinguishing between day and night. Always look at a window, and failing that look into the eyes of a man. If you see a face, any face, then you can be sure that night has succeeded day. For, believe me, night has a face." Then, ~ Elie Wiesel

One always goes back to one's childhood in the beginning, and I come from a very religious family and surrounding. Very religious. ~ Elie Wiesel

We believed in God, trusted in man, and lived with the illusion that every one of us has been entrusted with a sacred spark. ~ Elie Wiesel

It was neither German nor Jew who ruled the ghetto - it was illusion. ~ Elie Wiesel

I suspect they needed to know that there was an enemy who hated them and wanted them dead, because the opposite--that there was no grand, evil scheme against them, merely that the world was a massive, complex organism that perhaps had little use for them--was too terrifying to bear. It reminded me of the Elie Wiesel quote" "The opposite of love is not hate, its indifference." Hatred they could deal with, indifference was horrifying. SO rather than being insignificant ciphers in a vast and demeaning world, they became feared partisans in an existential struggle. ~ Vegas Tenold

Human suffering anywhere concerns men and women everywhere. ~ Elie Wiesel

How was it possible that men, women, and children were being burned and that the world kept silent? ~ Elie Wiesel

The only way for us to help ourselves is to help others and to listen to each other's stories. ~ Elie Wiesel

Nevertheless, we are led to believe that true words can communicate more than truth, they communicate what life is all about, that it's threatened, when it's threatened, when it's in danger, then it becomes a curse or a blessing. ~ Elie Wiesel

She is gazing out into the night, and the night has a thousand eyes, which are mine. ~ Elie Wiesel

If I love you more, will you suffer less? ~ Elie Wiesel

If the only prayer you say throughout your life is "Thank You," then that will be enough. ~ Elie Wiesel

It is not always events that have touched us personally that affect us the most. ~ Elie Wiesel

Humanity? Humanity is not concerned with us. Today anything is allowed. Anything is possible. ~ Elie Wiesel

When has religion ever been unifying? Religion has introduced many wars in this world, enough bloodshed and violence. ~ Elie Wiesel

It was like a page torn from a history book, from some historical novel about the captivity of babylon or Spanish Inquisition. ~ Elie Wiesel

In spite of despair, hope must exist. In spite of suffering, humanity must prevail. And in spite of all the differences in the world, the worst enemy, the worst peril, is indifference. ~ Elie Wiesel

My God was never happiness, but to understand and be understood. ~ Elie Wiesel

I still believe in man in spite of man. I believe in language even though it has been wounded, deformed, and perverted by the enemies of mankind. And I continue to cling to words because it is up to us to transform them into instruments of comprehension rather than contempt. It is up to us to choose whether we wish to use them to curse or to heal, to wound or to console. ~ Elie Wiesel

It has become increasingly clear that Hungarian authorities are encouraging the whitewashing of tragic and criminal episodes in Hungary's past, namely the wartime Hungarian governments' involvement in the deportation and murder of hundreds of thousands of its Jewish citizens. I found it outrageous that the Speaker of the Hungarian National Assembly could participate in a ceremony honoring a Hungarian fascist ideologue ~ Elie Wiesel

War is like night, she said. It covers everything. ~ Elie Wiesel

There is a difference between a book of two hundred pages from the very beginning, and a book of two hundred pages, which is the result of an original eight hundred pages. The six hundred pages are there. Only you don't see them. ~ Elie Wiesel

That is my major preoccupation, memory, the kingdom of memory. I want to protect and enrich that kingdom, glorify that kingdom and serve it. ~ Elie Wiesel

I belong to a tradition that believes that the death of a single child is a blemish on creation ... ~ Elie Wiesel

I never compared Nazis into communism, but communism was the same thing, the end justifies the means. Whatever the means. ~ Elie Wiesel

We still are looking for someone who knows the secret of immortality. Only God is immortal; we are not. ~ Elie Wiesel

Do you know what laughter is? I'll tell you. It's God's mistake. When God made man in order to bend him to his wishes he carelessly gave him the gift of laughter. ~ Elie Wiesel

After trampling over many bodies and corpses, we succeeded in getting inside. We let ourselves fall to the ground. ~ Elie Wiesel

From time immemorial, people have talked about peace without achieving it. Do we simply lack enough experience? Though we talk peace, we wage war. Sometimes we even wage war in the name of peace ... War may be too much a part of history to be eliminated-ever. ~ Elie Wiesel

All my life, until today, I have been content to ask questions. All the while knowing that the real questions, those that concern the creator and his creation, have no answers. I'll go even farther and say that there is a level at which only the questions are eternal, the answers never are. And so, the patient that I am, more charitable, repeats: 'Since God is, He is to be found in the questions as well as in the answers. ~ Elie Wiesel

Nobody asked anyone for help. One died because one had to. No point in making trouble. ~ Elie Wiesel

Little by litter life returned to normal. The barbed wire which fenced us in did not cause us any real fear. We even thought ourselves rather well off; we were entirely self-contained. A little Jewish republic ... We appointed a Jewish Council, a Jewish police, an office for social assistance, a labor committee, a hygiene department - a whole government machinery.
Everyone marveled at it. We should no longer have before our eyes those hostile faces, those hate-laden stares. Our fear and anguish were at an end. We were living among Jews, among brothers. ~ Elie Wiesel

the torturer scores a victory over his victim when the latter, in the grip of doubt, begins to torture himself. ~ Elie Wiesel

No human being is illegal. That is a contradiction in terms. Human beings can be beautiful or more beautiful, they can be fat or skinny, they can be right or wrong, but illegal? How can a human being be illegal? ~ Elie Wiesel

Elie Wiesel says that the greatest evil in the world is not anger or hatred, but indifference. If that is true, then the opposite is also true: that the greatest love we can show our children is the attention we pay them, the time we take for them. Maybe we serve children the best simply by noticing them. ~ Mumia Abu-Jamal

So I wrote this novel in order to explore distant memories and buried doubts: What would have become of me if I had spent not just one year in the camps, but two or four? If I had been appointed kapo? Could I have struck a friend? Humiliated an old man? And ~ Elie Wiesel

After my father's death, nothing could touch me any more. ~ Elie Wiesel

Music does not replace words, it gives tone to the words ~ Elie Wiesel

Pain is essential. Often I cannot avoid it.Therefore all one can do is redeem it; and the only way to redeem it is through literature, art, poetry, music. ~ Elie Wiesel

I don't think I should accept other people's suffering because I suffered. Just the opposite, because I suffered I don't want others to suffer. ~ Elie Wiesel

Those who know don't talk and those who talk don't know. ~ Elie Wiesel

From the depths of the mirror, a corpse gazed back at me. The look in his eyes, as they stared into mine, has never left me. ~ Elie Wiesel

The opposite of love is not hate, it's indifference. The opposite of art is not ugliness, it's indifference. The opposite of faith is not heresy, it's indifference. And the opposite of life is not death, it's indifference. ~ Elie Wiesel

We have to go into the despair and go beyond it, by working and doing for somebody else, by using it for something else. ~ Elie Wiesel

Memory is the keyword which combines past with present, past and future. ~ Elie Wiesel

Where is God to be found? In suffering or in rebellion? When is a man most truly a man? When he submits or when he refuses? Where does suffering lead him? To purification or to bestiality? ~ Elie Wiesel

I will say, with memoir, you must be honest. You must be truthful. ~ Elie Wiesel

When adults wage war, children perish. ~ Elie Wiesel

There are no accidents, only encounters with destiny! ~ Elie Wiesel

Look, if I were alone in the world, I would have the right to choose despair, solitude and self-fulfillment. But I am not alone. ~ Elie Wiesel

Whoever survives a test, whatever it may be, must tell the story. That is his duty. ~ Elie Wiesel

I learned to trust the threats of enemies before the promises of friends. ~ Elie Wiesel

I have one request: may I never use my reason against truth. ~ Elie Wiesel

It's not hatred that kills people, it's indifference ~ Elie Wiesel

If there is a single theme that dominates all my writings, all my obsessions, it is that of memory-because I fear forgetfulness as much as hatred and death. ~ Elie Wiesel

Humanity would never tolerate it ~ Elie Wiesel

I thought that culture and education are the shield. An educated person cannot do certain things and, and be educated, you cannot, and there they were, killing children day after day. ~ Elie Wiesel

Memory feeds a culture, nourishes hope and makes a human, human. ~ Elie Wiesel