Quotes from Elie Wiesel

Sion, pour moi, c'était une idée sainte, divine, un espoir messianique, une prière, un battement de coeur—et non un lieu géographique, une réalité politique, une cause au nom de laquelle on meurt ou on tue.

Je me souvenais de ce que mon vieux maître à la barbe jaunie m'avait dit un jour en m'expliquant le sixième commandement: pourquoi un homme n'aurait-il pas le droit de tuer? En tuant, expliquait-il, l'homme devient Dieu. Et nous n'avons pas le droit de le devenir trop facilement.

Yes, man is stronger, greater than God. When Adam and Eve deceived You, You chased them from paradise. When You were displeased by Noah's generation, You brought down the Flood. When Sodom lost Your favor, You caused the heavens to rain down fire and damnation. But look at these men whom You have betrayed, allowing them to be tortured, slaughtered, gassed, and burned, what do they do? They pray before You! They praise Your name!

The night had passed completely. The morning star shone in the sky. I too had become a different person. The student of Talmud, the child I was, had been consumed by the flames. All that was left was a shape that resembled me. My soul had been invaded—and devoured—by a black flame.

On everyone's back, there was a sack. In everyone's eyes, tears and distress.

His stare enveloped my whole being, and I wondered if he saw that I was a mass of eyes.

I shall never forgive myself. Nor shall I ever forgive the world for having pushed me against the wall, for having turned me into a stranger, for having awakened in me the basest, most primitive instincts.

J'en ai perdu des amis, moi. Parfois, il me semble que mon passé n'est qu'un cimetière. Au fond, c'est la raison pour laquelle j'ai suivi Gad et suis devenu terroriste: je n'avais pas d'amis à perdre.

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.

Et autour d'eux, tant d'amis, tant de frères, tant de camarades, des visages que j'avais connus dans mon enfance et d'autres que j'avais vu vivre et agoniser, espérer et blasphémer, à Buchenwald et à Auschwitz.

A man who has suffered more than others, and differently, should live apart. Alone. Outside of any organized existence. He poisons the air. He makes it unfit for breathing. He takes away from joy its spontaneity and its justification. He kills hope and the will to live. He is the incarnation of time that negates present and future, only recognizing the harsh law of memory. He suffers and his contagious suffering calls forth echoes around him.

Death," Kalman, the grizzled master, told me, "is being without. arms or legs or mouth or head; it is all eyes. If you ever meet a. creature with eyes everywhere, you can be sure it is death.

On the seventh day of Passover, the curtain finally rose: the Germans arrested the leaders of the Jewish community. From that moment on, everything happened very quickly. The race toward death had begun. First edict: Jews were prohibited from leaving their residences for three days, under penalty of death. Moishe the Beadle came running to our house. "I warned you," he shouted. And left without waiting for a response. The same day, the Hungarian police

Man comes closer to God through the questions he asks Him , he liked to say . Therein lies true dialogue . Man asks and God replies . But we don't understand His replies . We cannot understand them . Because they dwell in the depths of our souls and remain there until we die . The real answers , Eliezer , you will find only within yourself .

My father was a cultured man, rather unsentimental. He rarely displayed his feelings, not even within his family, and was more involved with the welfare of others than with that of his own kin. The Jewish community of Sighet held him in highest esteem; his advice on public and even private matters was frequently sought. There were four of us children. Hilda, the eldest; then Bea; I was the third and the only son; Tzipora was the youngest.

He who doesn't forget God isn't cold in his grave," she said. "What keeps him warm?" I insisted. Her thin voice had become like a whisper: it was a secret. "God himself.

Do not hang a young man whose only crime is fidelity to his ideal

NEVER SHALL I FORGET that night , the first night in camp , that turned my life into one long night seven times sealed . Never shall I forget that smoke . Never shall I forget the small faces of the children whose bodies I saw transformed into smoke under a silent sky . Never shall I forget those flames that consumed my faith forever .

I have more faith in Hitler than in anyone else . He alone has kept his promises , all his promises , to the Jewish people .

It's a laugh that comes from beyond happiness and sadness. From beyond faith and anger. It's a laugh that only the dead can appreciate.

Men to the left! Women to the right! Eight words spokern quietly, indifferently, without emotion. Eight simple, short words. Yet that was the moment when I left my mother.

Hubiera querido agregar: ¿por qué agradecerle? Hacía mucho que no comprendía qué había hecho el buen Dios para merecer al hombre.

Men are wrong to think that the blind cannot see. The truth is that they see, but differently. I would even say that they see something other.

There is so much to be done, there is so much that can be done.