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What hurts the victim most is not the cruelty of the oppressor, but the silence of the bystander.

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
Victim
Bystander
Silence
Bystanders
Hurt
Essayists
Pain
Oppressor
Oppressors
Hurts
Cruelty
Witness

More quotes by Elie Wiesel

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Some events do take place but are not true others are, although they never occurred.
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Once you bring life into the world, you must protect it. We must protect it by changing the world.
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Nevertheless, we are led to believe that true words can communicate more than truth, they communicate what life is all about, that it's threatened, when it's threatened, when it's in danger, then it becomes a curse or a blessing.
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Perhaps fate isn't blind after all. Perhaps it's capable of fantasy, even compassion.
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I personally have no doubt that the Exodus occurred. How it occurred, I don't know.
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My God was never happiness, but to understand and be understood.
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[Moishe] explained to me, with great emphasis, that every question possessed a power that was lost in the answer.... And why do you pray, Moishe?' I asked him. I pray to the God within me for the strength to ask Him the real questions.
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Man walks the moon but his soul remains riveted to earth. Once upon a time it was the opposite.
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Just as there are predatory birds, so there are predatory ideas: I came under their spell. . . .Just as the survivors say that no one will ever understand the victims, what I must tell you is that you will never understand the executioners.
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Yet another last night. The last night at home, the last night in the ghetto, the last night in the train, and, now, the last night in Buna. How much longer were our lives to be dragged out from one 'last night' to another?
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I thought that culture and education are the shield. An educated person cannot do certain things and, and be educated, you cannot, and there they were, killing children day after day.
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Whoever survives a test, whatever it may be, must tell the story. That is his duty.
Elie Wiesel
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I'm not a political person. I usually beware of political persons. I know many, but I'm not one of them. I have no political ambitions.
Elie Wiesel
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The whole community must be saved [in Tibet].
Elie Wiesel
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We are all teachers, or should be. Anyone who relays experience to another person is a teacher. Not to transmit your experience is to betray it.
Elie Wiesel
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You're at the bottom of the mountain. May you climb up without suffering.
Elie Wiesel
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Therefore, all my adult life, since I began my life as an author, or as a teacher, I always try to listen to the victim.
Elie Wiesel
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Sometimes I am asked if I know 'the response to Auschwitz I answer that not only do I not know it, but that I don't even know if a tragedy of this magnitude has a response.
Elie Wiesel
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When has religion ever been unifying? Religion has introduced many wars in this world, enough bloodshed and violence.
Elie Wiesel
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But where was I to start? The world is so vast, I shall start with the country I knew best, my own. But my country is so very large. I had better start with my town. But my town, too, is large. I had best start with my street. No, my home. No, my family. Never mind, I shall start with myself.
Elie Wiesel