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The most important question a human being has to face. What is it? The question, Why are we here?

Elie Wiesel

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

Baby Better Burn God Yourself
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

Desire Ideas Memories People Shadow Surround Thinking Truth
We believed in God, trusted in man, and lived with the illusion that every one of us has been entrusted with a sacred spark.
ELIE WIESEL

Believe God Illusion Man Spark
Life is not a fist. Life is an open hand waiting for some other hand to enter it.
ELIE WIESEL

Hands Life Open
Never shall I forget those moments that murdered my God and my soul and turned my dreams to ashes.
ELIE WIESEL

Ash Dreams Forget God Moments Murder
There is much to be done, there is much that can be done… one person of integrity can make a difference.
ELIE WIESEL

Difference Integrity Myself Person
Mankind must remember that peace is not God’s gift to his creatures; peace is our gift to each other.
ELIE WIESEL

Gift God Kind Man Ourselves Peace Remember
One person of integrity can make a difference.
ELIE WIESEL

Difference Integrity Oneself Person
Just as man cannot live without dreams, he cannot live without hope. If dreams reflect the past, hope summons the future.
ELIE WIESEL

Dreams Future Hope Live Man Reflection
There may be times when we are powerless to prevent injustice, but there must never be a time when we fail to protest.
ELIE WIESEL

Failure Injustice Power Protest Time
To forget the dead would be akin to killing them a second time.
ELIE WIESEL

Death Forget Kill Time
Once upon a time refugee meant somebody who has a refuge, found a place, a haven where he could find refuge.
ELIE WIESEL

Himself Place Refugee Time
Every single human being is a unique human being. And, therefore, it’s so criminal to do something to that human being, because he or she represents humanity.
ELIE WIESEL

Crime Human Humanity Represent
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
ELIE WIESEL

Angel Care Dangerous Demon Myself Word
We must choose between the violence of adults and the smiles of children. Between the ugliness of hate and the will to oppose it. Between inflicting suffering and humiliation on our fellow man and offering him the solidarity and hope he deserves.
ELIE WIESEL

Adult Choice Deserve Hope Ourselves Suffering Ugly Violence
Our obligation is to give meaning to life and in doing so to overcome the passive, indifferent life.
ELIE WIESEL

Life Meaning Obligation Ourselves Passive
Education in the key to preventing the cycle of violence and hatred that marred the 20th century from repeating itself in the 21st century.
ELIE WIESEL

Education Hate Repeat Violence
Ultimately, the only power to which man should aspire is that which he exercises over himself.
ELIE WIESEL

Exercise Himself Man Power Ultimate
For nearly 3,500 years Exodus has left such an imprint on people’s memories that I cannot imagine it had been invented just as a legend or a tale.
ELIE WIESEL

Imagination Invention Memories Myself People Time
Bite your lips, little brother…Don’t cry. Keep your anger, your hate, for another day, for later. The day will come but not now…Wait. Clench your teeth and wait.
ELIE WIESEL

Angry Bite Cry Day Lips Wait
Emphasis must be put on learning: there is no substitute to education. It can be briefly formulated in a few words: always, whatever you do in life, think higher and feel deeper.
ELIE WIESEL

Education Learning Substitute Word
Only the guilty are guilty: the children of killers are not killers, but children.
ELIE WIESEL

Children Family Guilty Kill
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

Memories Myself Obsession People Remember Resilience
When a person doesn’t have gratitude, something is missing in his or her humanity.
ELIE WIESEL

Gratitude Herself Humanity Missing Person
Silence encourages the tormentor, never the tormented.
ELIE WIESEL

Encouragement Silence Torment
Every Jew, somewhere in his being, should set apart a zone of hate – healthy virile hate – for what the German personifies and for what persists in the German.
ELIE WIESEL

Hate Health Persistence Religious
Take sides. Neutrality helps the oppressor, never the victim.
ELIE WIESEL

Help Oppression Side Victim

The most important question a human being has to face. What is it? The question, Why are we here?

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The most important question a human being has to face. What is it? The question, Why are we here?

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