Elie Wiesel Quotes

Quotes about:

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  What hurts the victim most is not the cruelty of the oppressor, but the silence of the bystander.

  Elie Wiesel

  Hurt, Pain, Bystanders

  "Courage To Care - Rescuers of Jews during the Holocaust" by Carol Rittner and Sandra Meyers, NYU Press, (p. 2), 1986.

  318 Copy quote

• 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.

  Elie Wiesel

  Peace, Bystanders, History

  Elie Wiesel (2011). “From the Kingdom of Memory: Reminiscences”, p.170, Schocken

  281 Copy quote
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  The opposite of love is not hate, it's indifference. The opposite of art is not ugliness, it's indifference. The opposite of faith is not heresy, it's indifference. And the opposite of life is not death, it's indifference.

  Elie Wiesel

  Love, Inspirational, Life

  US News & World Report, October 27, 1986.

  245 Copy quote

• Sometimes we must interfere. When human lives are endangered, when human dignity is in jeopardy, national borders and sensitivities become irrelevant. Whenever men or women are persecuted because of their race, religion, or political views, that place must - at that moment - become the center of the universe.

  Elie Wiesel

  Inspirational, Life, Women

  Elie Wiesel (2011). “From the Kingdom of Memory: Reminiscences”, p.170, Schocken

  288 Copy quote
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  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

  Freedom, Philosophy, Military

  Elie Wiesel (2011). “From the Kingdom of Memory: Reminiscences”, p.182, Schocken

  237 Copy quote

• To remain silent and indifferent is the greatest sin of all.

  Elie Wiesel

  Sin, Silent, Indifferent

  Elie Wiesel, Harry J. Cargas (1993). “Telling the tale: a tribute to Elie Wiesel on the occasion of his 65th birthday : essays, reflections, and poems”, Time Being Press

  109 Copy quote
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  Take sides. Neutrality helps the oppressor, never the victim.

  Elie Wiesel

  Bystanders, Remembrance, Silence

  Nobel Peace Prize acceptance speech, Oslo, Norway, 11 Dec. 1986

  190 Copy quote

• For the dead and the living, we must bear witness. Not only are we responsible for the memories of the dead, we are responsible for what we do with those memories

  Elie Wiesel

  Memories, Bears, Responsible

  179 Copy quote

• Even in darkness it is possible to create light.

  Elie Wiesel

  Positivity, Light, Darkness

  "'Even in Darkness, It Is Possible To Create Light' - Elie Wiesel Top Quotes on Survival, Faith and Perseverance Upon News of Death" by Jonalyn Cueto, www.christianpost.com. July 3, 2016.

  127 Copy quote

• In order to fly, you have to give up the ground you are standing on.

  Elie Wiesel

  Giving Up, Order, Giving

  60 Copy quote

• I still believe in man in spite of man. I believe in language even though it has been wounded, deformed, and perverted by the enemies of mankind. And I continue to cling to words because it is up to us to transform them into instruments of comprehension rather than contempt. It is up to us to choose whether we wish to use them to curse or to heal, to wound or to console.

  Elie Wiesel

  Inspirational, Sympathy, Believe

  Elie Wiesel (2012). “Open Heart”, p.73, Schocken

  173 Copy quote

• One person of integrity can make a difference.

  Elie Wiesel

  Integrity, Differences, Making A Difference

  Elie Wiesel (2012). “Night”, p.143, Macmillan

  57 Copy quote

• Be careful with words, they're dangerous. Be wary of them. They begat either demons or angels. It's up to you to give life to one or the other. Be careful, I tell you, nothing is as dangerous as giving free rein to words

  Elie Wiesel

  Teaching, Angel, Giving

  Elie Wiesel (2011). “Legends of Our Time”, p.14, Schocken

  78 Copy quote

• A Jew must be sensitive to the pain of all human beings. A Jew cannot remain indifferent to human suffering... The mission of the Jewish people has never been to make the world more Jewish, but to make it more human.

  Elie Wiesel

  Pain, Compassion, People

  15 Copy quote

• [Friedrich] Nietzsche said something marvellous, he said "Madness is not a consequence of uncertainty but of certainty", and this is fanaticism.

  Elie Wiesel

  Madness, Said, Certainty

  Source: www.nobelprize.org

  14 Copy quote

• People become the stories they hear and the stories they tell.

  Elie Wiesel

  People, Stories

  10 Copy quote

• Mankind must remember that peace is not God's gift to his creatures; peace is our gift to each other.

  Elie Wiesel

  Peace, Remember, Mankind

  77 Copy quote

• ... True, we are often too weak to stop injustices; but the least we can do is to protest against them. True, we are too poor to eliminate hunger; but in feeding one child, we protest against hunger. True, we are too timid and powerless to take on all the guards of all the political prisons in the world; but in offering our solidarity to one prisoner we denounce all the tormentors. True, we are powerless against death; but as long as we help one man, one woman, one child live one hour longer in safety and dignity, we affirm man's [woman's] right to live.

  Elie Wiesel

  Children, Men, Offering

  Elie Wiesel (1993). “Sages and Dreamers: Biblical, Talmudic, and Hasidic Portraits and Legends”, Touchstone Books

  161 Copy quote

• No human being is illegal. That is a contradiction in terms. Human beings can be beautiful or more beautiful, they can be fat or skinny, they can be right or wrong, but illegal? How can a human being be illegal?

  Elie Wiesel

  Beautiful, Skinny, Contradiction

  109 Copy quote

• I never compared Nazis into communism, but communism was the same thing, the end justifies the means. Whatever the means.

  Elie Wiesel

  Mean, Communism, Nazi

  Interview with Professor Georg Klein, www.nobelprize.org. December 10, 2004.

  11 Copy quote

• Remembering is a noble and necessary act. The call of memory, the call to memory, reaches us from the very dawn of history. No commandment figures so frequently, so insistently, in the Bible. It is incumbent upon us to remember the good we have received, and the evil we have suffered.

  Elie Wiesel

  Memories, Evil, Dawn

  "Hope, Despair and Memory". Nobel Lecture, www.nobelprize.org. December 11, 1986.

  10 Copy quote

• All collective judgments are wrong. Only racists make them. No human race is superior; no religious faith is inferior.

  Elie Wiesel

  Faith, Religious, Race

  "Have You Learned The Most Important Lesson Of All?". Parade Magazine, www.thehypertexts.com. May 24, 1992.

  98 Copy quote

• Think higher, feel deeper.

  Elie Wiesel

  Thinking, Deeper, Feels

  42 Copy quote

• 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.

  Elie Wiesel

  Strong, Hate, Love Is

  132 Copy quote

• In the word question, there is a beautiful word - quest. I love that word. We are all partners in a quest. The essential questions have no answers. You are my question, and I am yours - and then there is dialogue. The moment we have answers, there is no dialogue. Questions unite people.

  Elie Wiesel

  Beautiful, People, Essentials

  89 Copy quote

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