Quotes By Elie Wiesel

Indifference, to me, is the epitome of evil.

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

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

For in my tradition, as a Jew, I believe that whatever we receive we must share.

Sometimes I am asked if I know 'the response to Auschwitz; I answer that not only do I not know it, but that I don't even know if a tragedy of this magnitude has a response.

I do not recall a Jewish home without a book on the table.

Not to transmit an experience is to betray it.

The Bible is not only laws, it's also stories.

A destruction, an annihilation that only man can provoke, only man can prevent.

When I was young I lost everything.

There are victories of the soul and spirit. Sometimes, even if you lose, you win.

I remember, May 1944: I was 15-and-a-half, and I was thrown into a haunted universe where the story of the human adventure seemed to swing irrevocably between horror and malediction.

Friendship marks a life even more deeply than love. Love risks degenerating into obsession, friendship is never anything but sharing.

It all happened so fast. The ghetto. The deportation. The sealed cattle car. The fiery altar upon which the history of our people and the future of mankind were meant to be sacrificed.

That is my major preoccupation, memory, the kingdom of memory. I want to protect and enrich that kingdom, glorify that kingdom and serve it.

Man, as long as he lives, is immortal. One minute before his death he shall be immortal. But one minute later, God wins.

Once you bring life into the world, you must protect it. We must protect it by changing the world.

Our obligation is to give meaning to life and in doing so to overcome the passive, indifferent life.

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.

Without memory, there is no culture. Without memory, there would be no civilization, no society, no future.

I will say, with memoir, you must be honest. You must be truthful.

Some stories are true that never happened.

I was very, very religious. And of course I wrote about it in 'Night.' I questioned God's silence. So I questioned. I don't have an answer for that. Does it mean that I stopped having faith? No. I have faith, but I question it.

I'll tell you what: I believe mysticism is a very serious endeavor. One must be equipped for it.

Because I remember, I despair. Because I remember, I have the duty to reject despair.

Words can sometimes, in moments of grace, attain the quality of deeds.

We must take sides. Neutrality helps the oppressor, never the victim. Silence encourages the tormentor, never the tormented.

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

I marvel at the resilience of the Jewish people. Their best characteristic is their desire to remember. No other people has such an obsession with memory.

Now, when I hear that Christians are getting together in order to defend the people of Israel, of course it brings joy to my heart. And it simply says, look, people have learned from history.