Quotes from Elie Wiesel

I remember a young Hungarian Jew, his shoulders stooped like an old man's, who confessed to some infraction so as to be beaten in his uncle's stead. I am young, he said, and stronger than he. He was young but no less weak. He did not survive the beating

I didn't know that this was the moment in time and the place where I was leaving my mother and Tzipora forever.

One German officer lived in the house opposite ours. He had a room with the Kahn family. They said he was a charming man - calm, likable, polite, and sympathetic. Three days after he moved in he brought Madame Kahn a box of chocolates. The optimists rejoiced.

To talk to a stranger is like talking to the stars: it doesn't commit you.

Night is purer than day; it is better for thinking and loving and dreaming. At night everything is more intense, more true. The echo of words that have been spoken during the day takes on a new and deeper meaning.

A mn ages hs enemy because he hates his own hate. He says to himself: I hate him not because he's my enemy, not because he hates me, but because he arouses me to hate.

Un giorno riuscii ad alzarmi, dopo aver raccolto tutte le mie forze. Volevo vedermi nello specchio che era appeso al muro di fronte: non mi ero più visto dal ghetto. Dal fondo dello specchio un cadavere mi contemplava. Il suo sguardo nei miei occhi non mi lascia più.

Faster! Faster! Move, you lazy good-for-nothings! the Hungarian police were screaming. That was when I began to hate them, and my hatred remains our only link today. They were our first oppressors. They were the first faces of hell and death.

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.

action is the only remedy to indifference, the most insidious danger of all.

When human lives are endangered, when human dignity is in jeopardy, national borders and sensitivities become irrelevant

It was a destructive novel of acquired ideas. To finally wake up in a state of creative anguish, to lose oneself in order to find oneself again, to sleep in the arms of a beautiful student whose name one didn't know, to fall back to sleep over a love poem-that was called existence. The harmonics of artistic creation, of fertile sensibility, of anticipated events-history in movement-that was called a privilege.

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.

In an inn somewhere, a wealthy guest mistakes [Rebbe Zusia] for a beggar and treats him accordingly. Later he learns his identity and comes to cry his remorse: Forgive me, Rebbe, you must - for I didn't know! Why do you ask Zusia to forgive you? Rebbe Zusia said, shaking his head and smiling. You haven't done anything bad to him; it is not Zusia you insulted but a poor beggar, so go and ask the beggars, everywhere, to forgive you!

The main theme remains constant: man owes it to himself to reject despair; better to rely on miracles than opt for resignation. By changing himself, man can change the world.

The silence of two people is deeper than the silence of one. Involuntarily

In the word question, there is a beautiful word-quest. I love that word.

As long as one dissident is in prison, our freedom will not be true. As long as one child is hungry, our life 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.

YOM KIPPUR. The Day of Atonement. Should we fast? The question was hotly debated. To fast could mean a more certain, more rapid death. In this place, we were always fasting. It was Yom Kippur year-round. But there were those who said we should fast, precisely because it was dangerous to do so. We needed to show God that even here, locked in hell, we were capable of singing His praises. I

Dead souls have more to say than living ones.

In fact, the question has haunted me for a long time: Does life have meaning after Auschwitz? In a universe cursed because it is guilty, is hope still possible? For a young survivor whose knowledge of life and death surpasses that of his elders, wouldn't suicide be as great a temptation as love or faith?

And why do you pray, Moishe?" I asked him. "I pray to the God within me for the strength to ask Him the real questions.

man is born to love; he is only alive when he is in the presence of a woman he loves or should love. I

Without memory, there is no culture. Without memory, there would be no civilization, no society, no future