Quotes from 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.

Indifference, to me, is the epitome of evil.

Ultimately, the only power to which man should aspire is that which he exercises over himself.

A religious person answers to God, not to the elected or non-elected official.

God means movement, and not explanation.

Never shall I forget those moments that murdered my God and my soul and turned my dreams to ashes.

I believe in God--in spite of God! I believe in Mankind--in spite of Mankind! I believe in the Future--in spite of the Past!

Anything you want to say about God you better make sure you can say in front of a pit of burning babies.

I was there when God was put on trial....At the end of the trial, they used the word chayav, rather than 'guilty'. It means 'He owes us something'. Then we went to pray.

I pray to the God within me that He will give me the strength to ask Him the right questions.

It was the beginning of the war. I was twelve years old, my parents were alive, and God still dwelt in our town.

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

I come from a very religious background.And actually I remained in it. All my anger I describe in my quarrels with God in Auschwitz, but you know I used to pray every day.

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

Abraham is trying to obey God, but not to kill. I feel that moment is one of the defining moments of Jewish faith.

Since God is, He is to be found in the questions as well as the answers.

If God exists, how can we lay claim to freedom, since He is its beginning and its end?

A voice behind me asked, "Where is God? Where is He? Where can He be now?" and a voice within me answered: "Where? Here He is - He has been hanged here, on these gallows."

I am much more afraid of my good deeds that please me than of my bad deeds that repel me.

Gratitude is a word that I cherish. Gratitude is what defines the happiness and humanity of the human being.

The story [of the Sacrifice of Isaac ] is much more a part of theology than of history.

Historically, I come from Jewish history. I had the classic upbringing in the Yeshiva, learning, learning, and more learning.

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

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