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Quote by Elie Wiesel

“We must take sides. Neutrality helps the oppressor, never the victim. Silent encourages the tormentor, never the tormented.”

Author

Elie Wiesel

A renowned Jewish author and Nobel Peace Prize laureate, Elie Wiesel is known for his profound literary achievements and for recording and spreading the history of the Holocaust as a survivor. His works deeply reveal the terror of the Nazi Holocaust and the universal nature of human suffering. more

“Suppose two men at cards with nothing to wager save their lives. Who has not heard such a tale? A turn of the card. The whole universe for such a player has labored clanking to his moment which will tell if he is to die at that man’s hand or that man at his. What more certain validation of a man’s worth could there be? This enhancement of the game to its ultimate state admits no argument concerning the notion of fate. The selection of one man over another is a preference absolute and irrevocable and it is a dull man indeed who could reckon so profound a decision without agency or significance either one. In such games as have for their stake the annihilation of the defeated the decisions are quite clear. This man holding this particular arrangement of cards in his hand is thereby removed from existence. This is the nature of war, whose stake is at once the game and the authority and the justification. Seen so, war is the truest form of divination. It is the testing of one’s will and the will of another within that larger will which because it binds them is therefore forced to select. War is the ultimate game because war is at last a forcing of the unity of existence. War is god.”

War

Book:Blood Meridian, or, the Evening Redness in the West

Source: Blood Meridian, or, the Evening Redness in the West

“You said that you thought Queen Orlagh was waiting for an advantage to declare war. Instead, I think she is trying a new ruler—one she hopes she can trick or replace with another indebted to her. She thinks me young and feckless and means to take my measure.” “So what?” I ask. “Our choice is to endure her games, no matter how deadly, or engage in a war we cannot win?” Cardan shakes his head and drinks another cup of tea. “We show her that I am no feckless High King.” “And how do we do that?” I ask. “With great difficulty,” he says. “Since I fear she is right.”

War Young Right Game Trick Feckless Replace

Book:The Wicked King

Source: The Wicked King

“If you had told me, though, when I was twenty-four that I would write about Skokie, Illinois, where I grew up, I would have said, ‘You’re out of your mind. Why would I have Skokie in a poem?’ But you become resigned. Your job is to write about the life you actually have.”

Life Writing Reality Poetry Poems Writers Skokie

Author:Edward Hirsch

“Intelligence won wars, not brute force.”