Elie Wiesel
We live in the age of communication. Write letters to the editor. Speak to your congressman, to your senator. If you are young, especially young people are taken by this human rights activities. They should organize the universities.Collection: Communication
I don't think [governments] use [religious repression ] as a weapon, they use it as a as a means of - of oppression. To stifle opposition. To mute resistance.Collection: Religious
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.Collection: Religious
I believe in the story [ of Adam and Eve]. For me, it's a story.Collection: Believe
I had my religious crisis after the war, not during the war.Collection: Religious
We're both [with Elie Wiesel] a long way from the position of the so-called Biblical minimalists. Some of them see no history in the Bible until Josiah.Collection: Biblical
[Tibet] is a small country based on religious principle, religious traditions. It never wanted any conquest.Collection: Country
The Vietnam War ended because of the campus situation. And so many other injustices have been corrected in the World today only thanks to the young people. So, young people especially have a responsibility for Tibet.Collection: War
You cannot write in more than one language. Words don't come out as well.Collection: Writing
I've worked with five Presidents in America, all of them I ask the same question always: Why didn't the American allies bomb the railways going to Auschwitz?Collection: America
More people are aware of the consequences of hatred. People are aware. Therefore more people are engaged in fighting ... racism and so forth.Collection: Fighting
I make a difference between genocide and Holocaust. Holocaust was mainly Jewish, that was the only people, to the last Jew, sentenced to die for one reason, for being Jewish, that's all. Genocide is something else. Genocide has been actually codified by the United Nations. It's the intent of killing, the intent of killing people, a community in this culture so forth, but no other people has been really interested.Collection: Differences
I do not believe in collective guilt.Collection: Believe
Man walks the moon but his soul remains riveted to earth. Once upon a time it was the opposite.Collection: Dream
A word is worth a thousand pictures.Collection: Thousand
It may well be that our means are fairly limited and our possibilities restricted when it comes to applying pressure on our government But is this a reason to do nothing? Despair is nor an answer Neither is resignation Resignation only leads to indifference, which is not merely a sin but a punishment.Collection: Mean
He wants to see whether we are capable of overcoming out base instincts, of killing the Satan within ourselves. We have no right to despair. And if he punishes us mercilessly, it is a sign that He loves us that much more.Collection: Despair
I'd almost say hope isn't what it used to be. It's very difficult today to be a teacher. I speak to children. And tell them, look, no matter what, you must have hope. You must. When I invoke Camus, who said when there is no hope, you must invent hope. . .hope is something that is not what God gives us. It's like peace. It's a gift that one can give to one another. Only another person can push me to despair. And only another person can push me to hope. Its my choice.Collection: Teacher
I did not weep, and it pained me that i could not weep. But I had no more tears. And, in the depths of my being, in the recesses of my weakened conscience, could I have searched it, I might perhaps have found something like--free at last!Collection: Tears
Pain is essential. Often I cannot avoid it.Therefore all one can do is redeem it; and the only way to redeem it is through literature, art, poetry, music.Collection: Art
It's not hatred that kills people, it's indifferenceCollection: People
What is man? Ally of God or simply his toy? His triumph or his fall?Collection: Fall
For us it's not easy to be conformist, I cannot stand to be conformist, I don't accept what it is, I like to say no. If I see an injustice I scream.Collection: Injustice
Which is better, truth that is a lie or the lie that is truth?Collection: Lying
Once upon a time refugee meant somebody who has a refuge, found a place, a haven where he could find refuge.Collection: Once Upon A Time
Human beings all change. Not what they are but who they are. We have the power to change what we do with our life and turn it into our destiny.Collection: Destiny
A religious person answers to God, not to the elected or non-elected official.Collection: Religious
Anything you want to say about God you better make sure you can say in front of a pit of burning babies.Collection: Baby
..you do not leave a library; if you do what it wants you to do, you are taking it with you.Collection: Library
Write only if you cannot live without writing. Write only what you alone can write.Collection: Inspirational
Today, as yesterday, a nation is judged by its attitude towards refugees.Collection: Attitude
Better that one heart be broken a thousand times in the retelling, he has decided, if it means that a thousand other hearts need not be broken at all.Collection: Heart
Whoever survives a test, whatever it may be, must tell the story. That is his duty.Collection: Helping Others
In the beginning there was faith - which is childish; trust - which is vain; and illusion - which is dangerous.Collection: Illusion
The darkest days in my life after the war, after the war, was when I discovered that the ... most of the members and commanders of the Einsatz group that were doing the killings, not even in gas chambers, but killing with machine guns, had college degrees from German universities and PhD's and MD's. Couldn't believe it.Collection: War
When you listen to a witness, you become a witness.Collection: Witness
Only the guilty are guilty: the children of killers are not killers, but children.Collection: Children
I don't want my past to become anyone else's future.Collection: Past
I listen to music when I write. I need the musical background. Classical music. I'm behind the times. I'm still with Baroque music, Gregorian chant, the requiems, and with the quartets of Beethoven and Brahms. That is what I need for the climate, for the surroundings, for the landscape: the music.Collection: Writing
Take sides. Neutrality always serves the oppressor and never the oppressed.Collection: Neutrality
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!Collection: Believe
Whenever an angel says "Be not afraid!" you'd better start worrying. A big assignment is on the way.Collection: Angel
Every Jew, somewhere in his being, should set apart a zone of hate - healthy virile hate - for what the German personifies and for what persists in the German.Collection: Hate
For me democracy is the only way of life. The opposite is dictatorship or anarchy.Collection: Opposites
My good friends, we are all waiting. We are waiting, if not for the Messiah, as such, we are waiting for the messianic moment. And the messianic moment is what each and every one of us tries to build, meaning a certain area of humanity that links us to all those who are human and, therefore, desperately trying to fight despair as humanly as possible and - I hope - with some measure of success.Collection: Inspirational
You know, words have strange destiny, too. They grow. They get old. They die. They come back.Collection: Destiny
We must not see any person as an abstraction. Instead, we must see in every person a universe with its own secrets, with its own treasures, with its own sources of anguish, and with some measure of triumph.Collection: Secret
For nearly 3,500 years Exodus has left such an imprint on people's memories that I cannot imagine it had been invented just as a legend or a tale.Collection: Memories
Gratitude is a word that I cherish. Gratitude is what defines the happiness and humanity of the human being.Collection: Gratitude