A destruction, an annihilation that only man can provoke, only man can prevent.
Elie Wiesel

Because I remember, I despair. Because I remember, I have the duty to reject despair.
Elie Wiesel

Because of indifference, one dies before one actually dies.
Elie Wiesel

Friendship marks a life even more deeply than love. Love risks degenerating into obsession, friendship is never anything but sharing.
Elie Wiesel

Hope is like peace. It is not a gift from God. It is a gift only we can give one another.
Elie Wiesel

I decided to devote my life to telling the story because I felt that having survived I owe something to the dead. and anyone who does not remember betrays them again.
Elie Wiesel

I do not recall a Jewish home without a book on the table.
Elie Wiesel

I have not lost faith in God. I have moments of anger and protest. Sometimes I've been closer to him for that reason.
Elie Wiesel

I marvel at the resilience of the Jewish people. Their best characteristic is their desire to remember. No other people has such an obsession with memory.
Elie Wiesel

I swore never to be silent whenever and wherever human beings endure suffering and humiliation. We must always take sides. Neutrality helps the oppressor, never the victim. Silence encourages the tormentor, never the tormented.
Elie Wiesel


I write to understand as much as to be understood.
Elie Wiesel

In Jewish history there are no coincidences.
Elie Wiesel

Indifference, to me, is the epitome of evil.
Elie Wiesel

Just as despair can come to one only from other human beings, hope, too, can be given to one only by other human beings.
Elie Wiesel

Man, as long as he lives, is immortal. One minute before his death he shall be immortal. But one minute later, God wins.
Elie Wiesel

Mankind must remember that peace is not God's gift to his creatures; peace is our gift to each other.
Elie Wiesel

Most people think that shadows follow, precede or surround beings or objects. The truth is that they also surround words, ideas, desires, deeds, impulses and memories.
Elie Wiesel

No human race is superior; no religious faith is inferior. All collective judgments are wrong. Only racists make them.
Elie Wiesel

Not to transmit an experience is to betray it.
Elie Wiesel

Once you bring life into the world, you must protect it. We must protect it by changing the world.
Elie Wiesel