Quotes from Elie Wiesel

All right, I told myself. I'll also have to learn to eat. And to love. You can learn anything.

The witness has forced himself to testify. For the youth of today, for the children who will be born tomorrow. He does not want his past to become their future.

Prendi posizione. La neutralità favorisce sempre l'oppressore, non la vittima. Il silenzio incoraggia sempre il torturatore, non il torturato

In the beginning there was faith—which is childish; trust—which is vain; and illusion—which is dangerous.

You must first study the basic subjects within your own understanding...

But where shall I start? The world is so vast, I shall start with the country I know best, my own. But my country is so very large, I had better start with my town. But my town, too, is large. I had best start with my street. No, my home. No, my family. Never mind, I shall start with myself.

I wept because-because of something inside me that felt the need for tears.

Here, take this knife," he said. "I won't need it anymore. You may find it useful. Also take this spoon. Don't sell it. Quickly! Go ahead, take what I'm giving you!" My inheritance …

The lack of hate between executioner and victim, perhaps this is God.

A novel about Auschwitz is not a novel—or else it is not about Auschwitz.

Books no longer have the power they once did.

Just as man cannot live without dreams, he cannot live without hope. If dreams reflect the past, hope summons the future.

Since my father's death, nothing mattered to me anymore.

You mustn't be afraid of the dark," he said, gently grasping my arm and making me shudder. "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. The tragedy of man is that he doesn't know how to distinguish between day and night. He says things at night that should only be said by day.

Today literature must either be protest or consolation

It was that moment that I began to hate them, and my hate is still the only link between us today. They were our first oppressors. They were the first of the faces of hell and death.

Yes, we even doubted his resolve to exterminate us. Annihilate an entire people? Wipe out a population dispersed throughout so many nations? So many millions of people! By what means? In the middle of the twentieth century!

Life? I no longer care to live. I am alone. But I wanted to come back to warn you. Only no one is listening to me …

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.

Deep down, the witness knew then, as he does now, that his testimony would not be received. After all, it deals with an event that sprang from the darkest zone of man. Only those who experienced Auschwitz know what it was. Others will never know. But would they at least understand?

For us, this was the true equality: Nakedness. Shivering with the cold.

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.

Was it she who saved me from the silent death that characterizes resignation to solitude?

I belong to a traumatized generation that often felt abandoned by God and betrayed by mankind. And yet, I believe that one must not estrange oneself from either God or man.