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Perhaps some day someone will explain how, on the level of man, Auschwitz was possible but on the level of God, it will forever remain the most disturbing of mysteries.

Elie Wiesel

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Elie Wiesel
Age: 87 †
Born: 1928
Born: September 30
Died: 2016
Died: July 2
Autobiographer
Humanist
Journalist
Judaic Scholar
Novelist
Philosopher
Political Activist
Professor
Translator
University Teacher
Writer
Sighetu Marmaţiei
Eliezer Wiesel
A-7713
Élie Wiesel
Level
Perhaps
Levels
Auschwitz
Forever
Mysteries
Possible
Disturbing
Someone
Explain
Men
Remain
Mystery

More quotes by Elie Wiesel

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When you die and go to heaven our maker is not going to ask, 'why didn't you discover the cure for such and such? why didn't you become the Messiah?' The only question we will be asked in that precious moment is 'why didn't you become you?'
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Fanaticism in many lands has surfaced as the greatest threat to the world. Indifference to its consequences would be a serious mistake.
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Because I remember, I despair. Because I remember, I have the duty to reject despair.
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My teachers [ had the most impact in my life]. Of course, my father and grandfather, but after my family, my teachers.
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I'm not a military man. I wish I were, then maybe I could give some advice.
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[Chinese] are a huge empire now, you'll soon be - in a few years two billion people in the world. So, you should be more compassionate, more understanding. And above all, you don't need all their trouble.
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That is my major preoccupation, memory, the kingdom of memory. I want to protect and enrich that kingdom, glorify that kingdom and serve it.
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Writers write because they cannot allow the characters that inhabit them to suffocate them. These characters want to get out, to breathe fresh air and partake of the wine of friendship were they to remain locked in, they would forcibly break down the walls. It is they who force the writer to tell their stories.
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I'd rather speak as a student of philosophy. Philosophically it makes no sense, absolutely makes no sense. Why should people inherit evil things when their memories could contain and should invoke good things?
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It all happened so fast. The ghetto. The deportation. The sealed cattle car. The fiery altar upon which the history of our people and the future of mankind were meant to be sacrificed.
Elie Wiesel
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I have to be self-conscious of what I'm trying to do with my life.
Elie Wiesel
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If God exists, how can we lay claim to freedom, since He is its beginning and its end?
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I wrote my first book, I published it in 1955, it was in Yiddish and it was called And The World Was Silent.
Elie Wiesel
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The opposite of faith is not heresy but indifference
Elie Wiesel
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What is man? Hope turned to dust. No. What is man? Dust turned to hope.
Elie Wiesel
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Philosophy is a slow process of logic and logical discourse: A bringing B bringing C and so forth. In mysticism you can jump from A to Z. But the ultimate objective is the same. It's knowledge. It's truth.
Elie Wiesel
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We've sort of agreed that the account of Adam and Eve is a story.
Elie Wiesel
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A disciple came to the celebrated Master of the Good Name with a question. “Rabbi, how are we to distinguish between a true master and a fake?” And the master of the good name said, “When you meet a person who poses as a master, ask him a question: whether he knows how to purify your thoughts. If he says that he knows, then he is a fake.
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Some of the men spoke of God: His mysterious ways, the sins of the Jewish people, and the redemption to come. As for me, I had ceased to pray. I concurred with Job! I was not denying His existence, but I doubted His absolute justice.
Elie Wiesel
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I think that human beings are capable of the worst things possible.
Elie Wiesel