Eli Wiesel Quotations

Eli Wiesel has written not only about the holocaust but also about figures in Jewish history from great rabbis and prophets to rebbes. He portrays his subjects in a vivid and credible way, without turning them into an iconic caricature of their real character. His portrayal of a G-d with whom he argues ultimately inspires a deeper faith. Anyone who survives a trauma like Rwanda or Auschwitz with any faith in G-d or man is someone I want to learn from. Because of his gifts of communication, Elie Wiesel makes such a study possible

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


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


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


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.


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.

I write to understand as much as to be understood.

In Jewish history there are no coincidences.

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.

Words can sometimes, in moments of grace, attain the quality of deeds.

There is a difference between a book of two hundred pages from the very beginning, and a book of two hundred pages which is the result of an original eight hundred pages. The six hundred are there. Only you don't see them.

There are victories of the soul and spirit. Sometimes, even if you lose, you win.

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.

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