Quotessence
Home / Authors / Elie Wiesel
Elie Wiesel

Elie Wiesel Quotes

Professor

Filter quotes by topic

AllPeopleIfsMenHolocaustHumansKnowsThinkingWorldMeanWar

Famous Elie Wiesel Quotes

“In my lifetime I was to write only one book, this would be the one. Just as the past Lingers in the present, all my writings after night, including those that deal with biblical, Talmudic, or Hasidic themes, profoundly bear it's stamp, and cannot be understood if one has not read this very first of my works. Why did I write it? Did I write it so as not to go mad or, on the contrary, to go mad in order to understand the nature of the madness, the immense, terrifying madness that had erupted in history and in the conscience of mankind?”

IfsWritingFirstsBookWould BePastNightOrderDealsMankindBearsUnderstoodConscienceMadnessMadLifetimeIncludingContraryThemeImmenseBiblicalStamps
Book:Night
Create image

“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.”

MenInspirationalBelieveHas BeensStillsUseChoicesLanguageI BelieveWishHealingCompassionEnemyMankindEmpathyTransformationInstrumentsI Believe InTongueWoundsHealCurseSpiteProfessorsContemptSympathyContinuingWoundedComprehensionClingingConsoleI Still BelieveFreedom To Choose
Book:Open Heart
Create image

“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.”

MenLifeInspirationalHumansSometimesMomentsPoliticalReligionUniverseNationsWomenViewsRaceDangerDignityHuman RightsProtectionHuman LifeBordersThat MomentInterfereSensitivityPersecutionIrrelevantHuman DignityPersecutedJeopardyCenter Of The UniversePolitical ViewCenterednessNational Borders
Book:From the Kingdom of Memory: Reminiscences
Create image

“There is much to be done, there is much that can be done... One person of integrity, can make a difference, a difference of life and death. 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.”

KnowsNeedsChildrenPersonsLongDoneVoiceDifferencesFreedomForgetQualityOur LivesDependsIntegrityShameVictimFilledPrisonHungryBeing TrueMaking A DifferenceLife And DeathAnguishNot AloneDissidents
Author:Elie Wiesel
Create image

“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.”

GivingFirstsDesireCommunityResponsibilityGenerationsCenturyLonelinessIdentityDutyMembersDespairEthicsLonelyWeakSickTwentiesNobleSolidarityOur GenerationPersecuted
Author:Elie Wiesel
Create image

“For one who is indifferent, life itself is a prison. Any sense of community is external or, even worse, nonexistent. Thus, indifference means solitude. Those who are indifferent do not see others. They feel nothing for others and are unconcerned with what might happen to them. They are surrounded by a great emptiness. Filled by it, in fact. They are devoid of all hope as well as imagination. In other words, devoid of any future.”

FeelsWellsMeanFactsMightHappensHopeCommunityImaginationSolitudeFilledPrisonIndifferenceEmptinessIndifferentUnconcerned
Author:Elie Wiesel
Create image

“Acutely aware of the poverty of my means, language became obstacle. At every page I thought, 'That's not it.' So I began again with other verbs and other images. No, that wasn't it either. But what exactly was that it I was searching for? It must have been all that eludes us, hidden behind a veil so as not to be stolen, usurped and trivialized. Words seemed weak and pale.”

WritingMeanHas BeensLanguageBehindsPovertyPagesWeakObstaclesPaleVeilsStolenVerbsEludeElude Us
Author:Elie Wiesel
Create image