Elie Wiesel Quotes

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.

There is a coalition of anti-Semitism today, the extreme left, the extreme right and in the middle the huge corpus of Islam. I'm worried, I go around with a very heavy heart.

In those dark times, one rose to the very heights of humanity by simply remaining human.

The Biblical text does not have punctuation marks like periods and question marks. Where we end sentences is a matter of interpretation.

We are all brothers and we are all suffering the same fate. The same smoke floats over all our heads. Help one another. It is the only way to survive. (pg. 39)

Music does not replace words, it gives tone to the words

I needed to know that there was such a thing as love and that it brought smiles and joy in its wake.

If life is not a celebration, why remember it ? If life --- mine or that of my fellow man --- is not an offering to the other, what are we doing on this earth?

No one may speak for the dead, no one may interpret their mutilated dreams and visions.

After all, God is God because he remembers.

Look, if I were alone in the world, I would have the right to choose despair, solitude and self-fulfillment. But I am not alone.

Whenever an angel says "Be not afraid!" you'd better start worrying. A big assignment is on the way.

Eternity is the place where questions and answers become one.

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.

Fanaticism in many lands has surfaced as the greatest threat to the world. Indifference to its consequences would be a serious mistake.

I think that human beings are capable of the worst things possible.

My God was never happiness, but to understand and be understood.

'Indifference to evil is equal to evil' because it strengthens people.

Which is better, truth that is a lie or the lie that is truth?

Of course, afterward, I studied [commentary on the Bible by a Rabbi Moshe Dessauer] more closely. But, in truth, it doesn't touch me. It doesn't change my attitude toward the text.

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

Tibet's a tragedy. It's an insult to human decency.

Moses was the greatest legislator and the commander in chief of perhaps the first liberation army.

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.

I think those governments who resent religion, they're afraid of religion because religion may be in their eyes, in their views be seen as a counter government or a parallel government.

I'm not a military man. I wish I were, then maybe I could give some advice.

It's not a weapon, [governments] don't kill, they don't conduct massacres, although massacres have been committed and many people were killed, but they stifle religion, they're afraid probably.

[Tibet] is a small country based on religious principle, religious traditions. It never wanted any conquest.

I had my religious crisis after the war, not during the war.

Had the situation not been so tragic, we might have laughed.

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.

It takes more than a few generations to change a human nation. Those who are intent to bring (change) will do so.

Not all games are innocent. Some come dangerously close to cruelty.

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

I think [teacher] is the noblest profession.

My teachers [ had the most impact in my life]. Of course, my father and grandfather, but after my family, my teachers.

I believe in the story [ of Adam and Eve]. For me, it's a story.

Humanity would never tolerate it

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.

I think so. 9/11 has been a turning point in American history, there's no doubt about that.

I'm not a political person, and their ambitions are not mine. They want power. I don't want power.

You cannot write in more than one language. Words don't come out as well.

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?

More people are aware of the consequences of hatred. People are aware. Therefore more people are engaged in fighting ... racism and so forth.

A word is worth a thousand pictures.

It's not hatred that kills people, it's indifference

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

did everything I could in my life to be immune to hatred, because hatred is a cancer.

Whatever we thought was certain is no longer certain, and therefore in science probably certain things must be correct, but in human behaviour I am not so sure.

Words can be turned into spears. They can be turned into prayers. It's a strange world that you are in. But you deal with words.