Quotes About Responsibility

We believed in God, trusted in man, and lived with the illusion that every one of us has been entrusted with a sacred spark.

Each man was his own executioner and his own victim.

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

Man prefers to blame himself for all possible sins and crimes rather than come to the conclusion that God is capable of the most flagrant injustice. I still blush every time I think of the way God makes fun of human beings, his favorite toys.

There may be times when we are powerless to prevent injustice, but there must never be a time when we fail to protest. -Elie Wiesel, writer, Nobel laureate (b. 1928) You can't do anything about the length of your life, but you can do something about its width and depth. -H.L. Mencken, writer, editor, and critic (1880-1956)

Because if we forget, we are guilty, we are accomplices.

Neutrality helps the oppressor, never the victim

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. This is what I say to the young Jewish boy wondering what I have done with his years. It is in his name that I speak to you and that I express to you my deepest gratitude as one who has emerged from the Kingdom of Night.

How was it possible that men, women, and children were being burned and that the world kept silent?

You are the sum total of all that we have been," said the youngster who looked like my former self. "In a way we are the ones to execute John Dawson. Because you can't do it without us. Now, do you see?" I was beginning to understand. An act so absolute as that of killing involves not only the killer but, as well, those who have formed him. In murdering a man I was making them murderers.

To forget would be not only dangerous but offensive; to forget the dead would be akin to killing them a second time.     SOMETIMES

We must take sides. Neutrality helps the oppressor, never the victim. Silence encourages the tormentor, never the tormented. Sometimes we must interfere.

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

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.

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.

Do I have the right to represent the multitudes who have perished? Do I have the right to accept this great honor on their behalf? I do not. No one may speak for the dead, no one may interpret their mutilated dreams and visions. And yet, I sense their presence. I always do—and at this moment more than ever. The presence of my parents, that of my little sister. The presence of my teachers, my friends, my companions … This honor belongs

To forget a holocaust is to kill twice.

Man prefers to blame himself for all possible sins and crimes rather than coe to the conclussion tat God is capable of the most flagrant injustice. I still blush everytime I think of the way God makes fun of human beings, his favorite toys.

To live is to betray the dead. We hasten to bury and forget them because we are ashamed; we feel guilty towards them.

I have tried to fight those who would forget. Because if we forget, we are guilty, we are accomplices.

We know that every moment is a moment of grace, every hour an offering; not to share them would mean to betray them. Our lives no longer belong to us alone; they belong to all those who need us desperately.

To forget would be not only dangerous but offensive; to forget the dead would be akin to killing them a second time.

Because of indifference, one dies before one actually dies.

How was it possible that men, women, and children are being burned and that the world kept silent?