Elie Wiesel Quotes

• The sincere Christian knows that what died in Auschwitz was not the Jewish people but Christianity.

  Elie Wiesel

  Harry J. Cargas, Elie Wiesel (1976). “Harry James Cargas in Conversation with Elie Wiesel”

  448

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

  Elie Wiesel

  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

  1486

• Hope is like peace. It is not a gift from God. It is a gift only we can give one another.

  Elie Wiesel

  1484

• There are so many who know more than I do, who understand the world better than I do. I would be truly learned, a great scholar, if only I could retain everything I've learned from those I have known. But then would I still be me? And isn't all that only words? Words grow old, too; they change their meaning and their usage. They get sick just as we do; they die of their wounds and then they are relegated to the dust of dictionaries. And where am I in all this?

  Elie Wiesel

  Elie Wiesel (2007). “The Time of the Uprooted: A Novel”, p.17, Schocken

  1846

• Though we talk peace, we wage war. Sometimes we even wage war in the name of peace. Does that seem paradoxical? Well, war is not afraid of paradoxes.

  Elie Wiesel

  Elie Wiesel (2011). “From the Kingdom of Memory: Reminiscences”, p.165, Schocken

  3567

• Life is really fascinated only by death. It vibrates only when it comes in contact with death.

  Elie Wiesel

  Elie Wiesel (2006). “Day: A Novel”, p.122, Macmillan

  2815

• With every cell of my being and with every fiber of my memory I oppose the death penalty in all forms. I do not believe any civilized society should be at the service of death. I don't think it's human to become an agent of the angel of death.

  Elie Wiesel

  1928

• I have absolutely no problem with the young Germans. I even feel sorry for the young Germans because to be maybe sons or daughters of killers is different than them to be sons and daughters of the victims. And I felt sorry for them. I still do.

  Elie Wiesel

  Source: www.npr.org

  799

• How can one explain the attraction terror holds for some minds — and why for intellectuals? . . .In a totalitarian and terrorist regime, man is no longer a unique being with infinite possibilities and limitless choices but a number, a puppet, with just this difference — numbers and puppets are not susceptible to fear.

  Elie Wiesel

  4019

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

  Elie Wiesel

  Source: www.savetibet.org

  2925

• The only way for us to help ourselves is to help others and to listen to each other's stories.

  Elie Wiesel

  236

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

  Elie Wiesel

  4959

• [Chinese] are a huge empire now, you'll soon be - in a few years two billion people in the world. So, you should be more compassionate, more understanding. And above all, you don't need all their trouble.

  Elie Wiesel

  1791

• I come from a tradition - from the Jewish tradition, which believes in words, in language, in communication.

  Elie Wiesel

  Source: www.npr.org

  2135

• All I hope is that the American coalition is doing its best to prevent civilian casualties and the killing of innocent people.

  Elie Wiesel

  Source: dailynorthwestern.com

  219

• My students are very special. They are my source of pride, my source of joy, my source of hope. I am terribly fond of my students.

  Elie Wiesel

  Source: dailynorthwestern.com

  2725

• The more we know, the more pain we have. But because we are human beings, this must be. Otherwise we become objects rather than subjects.

  Elie Wiesel

  3086

• Eternity is the place where questions and answers become one.

  Elie Wiesel

  3060

• For the purpose of my life, I don't ask the question. First of all, I believe. I think the Five Books of Moses are inspired. Call it divine. I don't know. But I would certainly call it inspired.

  Elie Wiesel

  Source: www.biblicalarchaeology.org

  5106

• If there is one person on the planet who still is suffering from loneliness and from pain or despair, and we don't know about it, or we don't want to know about it, then something is wrong with the world.

  Elie Wiesel

  Source: www.huffingtonpost.com

  374

• I try to see their moral relevance [in the Bible] and, of course, to admire the literary beauty of the text. Prophetic poetry: No one has written the way Isaiah does.

  Elie Wiesel

  Source: www.biblicalarchaeology.org

  412

• It is obvious that the war which Hitler and his accomplices waged was a war not only against Jewish men, women, and children, but also against Jewish religion, Jewish culture, Jewish tradition, therefore Jewish memory.

  Elie Wiesel

  Elie Wiesel (2012). “Night”, p.5, Macmillan

  2504

• I was never without a book in my hand.

  Elie Wiesel

  Source: www.biblicalarchaeology.org

  5163

• The sky is so close to the sea that it is difficult to tell which is reflected in the other, which one needs the other, which one is dominating the other.

  Elie Wiesel

  Elie Wiesel (2006). “Day: A Novel”, p.45, Macmillan

  1812

• In my town we studied the five Books of Moses, but rarely the prophets. We studied the Talmud so much that I sometimes knew the prophets because of the prophetic quotations in the Talmud. We almost never studied the prophets themselves.

  Elie Wiesel

  Source: www.biblicalarchaeology.org

  1769

• Do you know what laughter is? I'll tell you. It's God's mistake. When God made man in order to bend him to his wishes he carelessly gave him the gift of laughter.

  Elie Wiesel

  508

• One person of integrity can make a difference.

  Elie Wiesel

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

  3661

• Therefore, all my adult life, since I began my life as an author, or as a teacher, I always try to listen to the victim.

  Elie Wiesel

  "Messenger to Mankind". The Academy of Achievement Interview, www.achievement.org. June 29, 1996.

  4940

• 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

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

  727

• Never shall I forget that night, the first night in camp, which has turned my life into one long night, seven times cursed and seven times sealed.

  Elie Wiesel

  Night ch. 3 (1960)

  651

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