Quotes from Elie Wiesel

For in the end, it is all about memory, its source and its magnitude, and, of course, its consequences.

Melt down the fat. Cut the cosmetics and coloratura. The classic rule of good journalism: honor the verb, sacrifice the adjective.

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

We were not afraid. And yet, if a bomb had fallen on the blocks, it alone would have claimed hundreds of victims on the spot. But we were no longer afraid of death; at any rate, not of that death. Every bomb that exploded filled us with joy and gave us new confidence in life.

Those who kept silent yesterday will remain silent tomorrow.

Religion is a very personal thing for me. Religion has its good moments and its poor moments.

I do not recall a Jewish home without a book on the table.

Religion is not man's relationship to God, it is man's relationship to man.

Only fanatics — in religion as well as in politics — can find a meaning in someone else's death.

I think those governments who resent religion, they're afraid of religion because religion may be in their eyes, in their views be seen as a counter government or a parallel government.

It's not a weapon, [governments] don't kill, they don't conduct massacres, although massacres have been committed and many people were killed, but they stifle religion, they're afraid probably.

Judaism is in a sense a Rabbinic, Talmudic religion, rather than a Biblical religion.

I respect scholarship. But I don't like to do things half-heartedly.

I have a tremendous respect for Professor [Frank Moore] Cross.

The Holocaust is not a cheap soap opera. The Holocaust is not a romantic novel. It is something else.

The Holocaust is the most documented tragedy in recorded history. And therefore, later on, if there will be a later on, anyone wishing to know will know where to go for knowledge.

The Jewish tradition of learning-is learning. Adam chose knowledge instead of immortality.

What is Scripture? The Hebrew word is torah. Torah means teaching, learning.

For me, every hour is grace. And I feel gratitude in my heart each time I can meet someone and look at his or her smile.

Never shall I forget these things, even if I am condemned to life as long as God himself

Life is not a fist. Life is an open hand waiting for some other hand to enter it.

Emphasis must be put on learning: there is no substitute to education. It can be briefly formulated in a few words: always, whatever you do in life, think higher and feel deeper.

If I were in the government, I would persuade the prime minister to see the beauty in the fact that people see Israel as a haven - from their sadness to their hope.

You would be amazed at the number of doors a Nobel Prize opens.