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
hurt bystanders silence
What hurts the victim most is not the cruelty of the oppressor, but the silence of the bystander.
canvas eliminate order pages painting reader remove sculpture somehow work writers-and-writing
Writing is not like painting where you add. It is not what you put on the canvas that the reader sees. Writing is more like a sculpture where you remove, you eliminate in order to make the work visible. Even those pages you remove somehow remain.
century community define desire duty enter expressed generation identity meaning members noble solidarity themselves
This is the duty of our generation as we enter the twenty-first century -- solidarity with the weak, the persecuted, the lonely, the sick, and those in despair. It is expressed by the desire to give a noble and humanizing meaning to a community in which all members will define themselves not by their own identity but by that of others.
gift peace
Peace is not God's gift to his creatures. It is our gift to each other.
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,
believed listen witness
I always believed that to listen to a witness is to become a witness.
crisis force send task within
If there is a crisis in the world, the U.N. should send a task force immediately, within 24 hours,
compare israelis people wonder
I have to wonder about people who compare Israelis to Nazis.
brave decision deserves face israelis military minister operation peace political present prime pursue sharon starting strictly
On a strictly military level, the operation is a success. For that, and for his brave decision to pursue peace even at present political cost, Prime Minister Ariel Sharon deserves praise. But starting now, Israelis and Palestinians must face the question: What next?
along anyone anywhere bad build cannot failure fallen fault god good himself less light line resulted springs tried undo whose
In any case, he had bungled his life. Bad husband, bad father, bad lover: failure all along the line . . . All the springs were broken. No more light anywhere . . . Everything he had tried to build had fallen apart. The little good he had done had resulted in fiasco. Whose fault could it be other than his own? . . . And anyone will tell you that if God Himself cannot undo what happened, still less can man.
hates hating
Someone who hates one group will end up hating everyone - and, ultimately, hating himself or herself.
society
In any society, fanatics who hate don't hate only me - they hate you, too. They hate everybody.
encourages helps neutrality
We must take sides. Neutrality helps the oppressor, never the victim. Silence encourages the tormentor, never the tormented.
letter special touched
The letter was a very special letter, and it touched me, ... I said, 'How can I say no?'