Elie Wiesel Quotes

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

  Elie Wiesel

  Christian   People   Holocaust  

  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

  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

  1486

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

  Elie Wiesel

  Inspirational   Hope   Peace  

  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

  Dust   Sick   Would Be  

  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

  War   Names   Doe  

  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

  Life Is   Contact   Fascinated  

  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

  Memories   Believe   Angel  

  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

  Daughter   Sorry   Son  

  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

  Men   Unique   Differences  

  4019

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

  Elie Wiesel

  Religious   Answers   Elected Officials  

  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

  Life   Helping Others   Stories  

  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

  Hope   Holocaust   Despair  

  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

  Two   Years   People  

  1791

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

  Elie Wiesel

  Believe   Communication   Jewish Tradition  

  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

  People   Killing   Innocent  

  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

  Pride   Joy   Special  

  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

  Pain   Endurance   Humans  

  3086

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

  Elie Wiesel

  Questions And Answers   Answers   Eternity  

  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

  Believe   Book   Thinking  

  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

  Pain   Loneliness   Suffering  

  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

  Trying   Doe   Way  

  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

  Children   Memories   War  

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

  2504

• I was never without a book in my hand.

  Elie Wiesel

  Book   Hands  

  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

  Sea   Sky   Needs  

  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

  Book   Towns   Sometimes  

  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

  Laughter   Mistake   Men  

  508

• One person of integrity can make a difference.

  Elie Wiesel

  Integrity   Differences   Making A Difference  

  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

  Teacher   Teaching   Trying  

  "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

  Freedom   Philosophy   Military  

  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   Long   Holocaust  

  Night ch. 3 (1960)

  651

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