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

Education in the key to preventing the cycle of violence and hatred that marred the 20th century from repeating itself in the 21st century.

Anything you want to say about God you better make sure you can say in front of a pit of burning babies.

I was there when God was put on trial. At the end of the trial, they used the word chayav, rather than ‘guilty’. It means ‘He owes us something’. Then we went to pray.

Human beings all change. Not what they are but who they are. We have the power to change what we do with our life and turn it into our destiny.

I swore never to be silent whenever and wherever human beings endure suffering and humiliation.

I came to the conclusion that I am free to choose my own suffering. But I am not free to consent to someone else’s suffering.

I don’t want my past to become anyone else’s future.

We believed in God, trusted in man, and lived with the illusion that every one of us has been entrusted with a sacred spark.

Be careful with words, they’re dangerous. Be wary of them. They begat either demons or angels. It’s up to you to give life to one or the other. Be careful, I tell you, nothing is as dangerous as giving free rein to words

Silence encourages the tormentor, never the tormented.

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.

We must not see any person as an abstraction. Instead, we must see in every person a universe with its own secrets, with its own treasures, with its own sources of anguish, and with some measure of triumph.

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.

Once upon a time refugee meant somebody who has a refuge, found a place, a haven where he could find refuge.

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

The opposite of love is not hate, but indifference. Indifference creates evil. Hatred is evil itself. Indifference is what allows evil to be strong, what gives it power.

If there’s one thing you can say about mankind, there’s nothing kind about man.

When the world has been unkind, when life’s troubles cloud your mind, Don’t sit down and frown and sigh and moon and mope. Take a walk along the square, fill your lungs with God’s fresh air, Then go whistling back to work and smile and hope.

Heaven always shower His mercy on us and we return it with our cruelty.

Ah, cruel ’tis to love, And cruel not to love, But cruelest of all To love and love in vain.

I think after we ingest some of the cruelty of the world, it takes years off of our lives, but it also gives us wisdom and a little grace, hopefully a sense of compassion.

Cruel men are the greatest lovers of Mercy, avaricious men of generosity, and proud men of humility; that is to say, in other, not in themselves.

While people are struggling unhappily in the cities against the cruel authorities, a waterfall happily and cheerfully flows in the nature; there is happiness only if there is freedom!

Doubts are more cruel than the worst of truths.