Elie Wiesel
Elie Wiesel
Eliezer "Elie" Wiesel KBEwas a Romanian-born American Jewish writer, professor, political activist, Nobel Laureate and Holocaust survivor. He was the author of 57 books, written mostly in French and English, including Night, a work based on his experiences as a prisoner in the Auschwitz and Buchenwald concentration camps...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionActivist
Date of Birth30 September 1928
CountryUnited States of America
silence philosopher
The philosophers are wrong: it is not words that kill, it is silence.
life despair remember
Because I remember, I despair. Because I remember, I have the duty to reject despair.
believe men enemy
I still believe in man in spite of man. I believe in language even though it has been wounded, deformed, and perverted by the enemies of mankind. And I continue to cling to words because it is up to us to transform them into instruments of comprehension rather than contempt. It is up to us to choose whether we wish to use them to curse or to heal, to wound or to console.
world desperate reason
You know how many reasons we have to be desperate and despairing, the world is not learning anything. We have seen that.
racism people prejudice
Young people want to learn, they are thirsty for knowledge, they want to understand and remember. The main thing is to teach them where not to go. Oppression, not to go; dictatorship, not to go; racism and prejudice, absolutely not to go. This is a moral plan [for society].
love inspirational life
The opposite of love is not hate, it's indifference. The opposite of art is not ugliness, it's indifference. The opposite of faith is not heresy, it's indifference. And the opposite of life is not death, it's indifference.
inspirational men race
Sometimes we must interfere. When human lives are endangered, when human dignity is in jeopardy, national borders and sensitivities become irrelevant. Whenever men or women are persecuted because of their race, religion, or political views, that place must - at that moment - become the center of the universe.
believe blessing life-is
Nevertheless, we are led to believe that true words can communicate more than truth, they communicate what life is all about, that it's threatened, when it's threatened, when it's in danger, then it becomes a curse or a blessing.
new-beginnings positivity moments
Every moment is a new beginning.
bystanders silence holocaust
Take sides. Neutrality helps the oppressor, never the victim.
hurt bystanders silence
What hurts the victim most is not the cruelty of the oppressor, but the silence of the bystander.
detachment examined longer past true
He had so examined his past that he could no longer look at it with enough detachment to tell what was true and what wasn't,
gift peace
Peace is not God's gift to his creatures. It is our gift to each other.
corpse depths eyes left
From the depths of the mirror, a corpse was contemplating me. The look in his eyes as he gazed at me has never left me.