Mankind must remember that peace is not God’s gift to his creatures, it is our gift to each
other.
– Elie Wiesel
None of us is in a position to eliminate war, but it is our obligation to denounce it and expose
it in all its hideousness. War leaves no victors, only victims.
– Elie Wiesel
When a person doesn’t have gratitude, something is missing in his or her humanity. A person
can almost be defined by his or her attitude toward gratitude.
– Elie Wiesel
Ultimately, the only power to which man should aspire is that which he exercises over himself.
– Elie Wiesel
Our obligation is to give meaning to life and in doing so to overcome the passive, indifferent
life.
– Elie Wiesel
I had anger but never hate. Before the war, I was too busy studying to hate. After the war, I
thought, “What’s the use?” To hate would be to reduce myself.
– Elie Wiesel
There may be times when we are powerless to prevent injustice, but there must never be a
time when we fail to protest. The Talmud tells us that by saving a single human being, man
can save the world.
– Elie Wiesel
Human suffering anywhere concerns men and women everywhere.
– Elie Wiesel
I decided to devote my life to telling the story because I felt that having survived I owe
something to the dead. And anyone who does not remember betrays them again.
– Elie Wiesel
As long as one dissident is in prison, our freedom will not be true. As long as one child is
hungry, our lives 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.
– Elie Wiesel
Indifference, to me, is the epitome of evil.
– Elie Wiesel
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.
– Elie Wiesel
To forget the dead would be akin to killing them a second time.
– Elie Wiesel
No human being is illegal.
– Elie Wiesel
If someone had told us in 1945 that in our lifetime religious wars would rage on virtually every
continent, that thousands of children would once again be dying of starvation, we would not
have believed it. Or that racism and fanaticism would flourish once again, we would not have
believed it.
– Elie Wiesel
Which is worse? Killing with hate or killing without hate?
– Elie Wiesel
For me, every hour is grace. And I feel gratitude in my heart each time I can meet someone
and look at his or her smile.
– Elie Wiesel
Because of indifference, one dies before one actually dies.
– Elie Wiesel
Wherever men and 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
If the only prayer you say throughout your life is “Thank you,” then that will be enough.
– Elie Wiesel
Just as man cannot live without dreams, he cannot live without hope. If dreams reflect the
past, hope summons the future.
– Elie Wiesel
Once you bring life into the world, you must protect it. We must protect it by changing the
world.
– Elie Wiesel
I don’t believe in accidents. There are only encounters in history. There are no accidents.
– Elie Wiesel
Words can sometimes, in moments of grace, attain the quality of deeds.
– Elie Wiesel
I have one request: may I never use my reason against truth.
– Elie Wiesel
Most people think that shadows follow, precede or surround beings or objects. The truth is
that they also surround words, ideas, desires, deeds, impulses and memories.
– Elie Wiesel
Others have been here before me, and I walk in their footsteps. The books I have read were
composed by generations of fathers and sons, mothers and daughters, teachers and
disciples. I am the sum total of their experiences, their quests. And so are you.
– Elie Wiesel
There are victories of the soul and spirit. Sometimes, even if you lose, you win.
– Elie Wiesel
Because I remember, I despair. Because I remember, I have the duty to reject despair. I
remember the killers, I remember the victims, even as I struggle to invent a thousand and one
reasons to hope.
– Elie Wiesel
Only the guilty are guilty. Their children are not.
– Elie Wiesel
What does mysticism really mean? It means the way to attain knowledge. It’s close to
philosophy, except in philosophy you go horizontally while in mysticism you go vertically.
– Elie Wiesel
Friendship marks a life even more deeply than love. Love risks degenerating into obsession,
friendship is never anything but sharing.
– Elie Wiesel
The opposite of love is not hate, it’s indifference. The opposite of beauty is not ugliness, it’s
indifference. The opposite of faith is not heresy, it’s indifference. And the opposite of life is
not death, but indifference between life and death.
– Elie Wiesel
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
Of course some wars may have been necessary or inevitable, but none was ever regarded as
holy. For us, a holy war is a contradiction in terms. War dehumanizes, war diminishes, war
debases all those who wage it. The Talmud says, “Talmidei hukhamim marbin shalom
baolam” (It is the wise men who will bring about peace). Perhaps, because wise men
remember best.
– Elie Wiesel
No human race is superior; no religious faith is inferior. All collective judgments are wrong.
Only racists make them.
– Elie Wiesel
If you ask me what I want to achieve, it’s to create an awareness, which is already the
beginning of teaching.
– Elie Wiesel
Whenever an angel says, “Be not afraid!” you’d better start worrying. A big assignment is on
the way.
– Elie Wiesel
Think higher, feel deeper.
– Elie Wiesel
I have not lost faith in God. I have moments of anger and protest. Sometimes I’ve been
closer to him for that reason.
– Elie Wiesel
One person of integrity can make a difference.
– Elie Wiesel
Hope is like peace. It is not a gift from God. It is a gift only we can give one another.
– Elie Wiesel
Whoever survives a test, whatever it may be, must tell the story. That is his duty.
– Elie Wiesel