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

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.

What is man? Hope turned to dust. No. What is man? Dust turned to hope.

In order to fly, you have to give up the ground you are standing on.

Just as man cannot live without dreams, he cannot live without hope. If dreams reflect the past, hope summons the future.

Whoever survives a test, whatever it may be, must tell the story. That is his duty.

The philosophers are wrong: it is not words that kill, it is silence.

There may be times when we are powerless to prevent injustice, but there must never be a time when we fail to protest.

Suffering pulls us farther away from other human beings. It builds a wall made of cries and contempt to separate us.