“Indifference, to me, is the epitome of evil.”
(Interview with U.S. News and World Report, 1986)
“I swore never to be silent whenever and wherever human beings endure suffering and humiliation. We must always take sides. Neutrality helps the oppressor, never the victim. Silence encourages the tormentor, never the tormented.”
(The Nobel Peace Prize speech, 1986)
“No one is as capable of gratitude as one who has emerged from the kingdom of night.”
(The Nobel Peace Prize speech, 1986)
“For the survivor who chooses to testify, it is clear: his duty is to bear witness for the dead and for the living … To forget the dead would be akin to killing them a second time.”
(from “Night”)
“What is abnormal is that I am normal. That I survived the Holocaust and went on to love beautiful girls, to talk, to write, to have toast and tea and live my life — that is what is abnormal.”
(Interview with Oprah Winfrey in 2000)
“The only role I sought was that of witness. I believed that having survived by chance, I was duty-bound to give meaning to my survival, to justify each moment of my life.”
(from “Why I Write,” 1978)
“Action is the only remedy to indifference: the most insidious danger of all.”
(The Nobel Peace Prize speech, 1986)
“For in the end, it is all about memory, its sources and its magnitude, and, of course, its consequences.”
(from “Night”)
“For the survivor who chooses to testify, it is clear: his duty is to bear witness for the dead and for the living. He has no right to deprive future generations of a past that belongs to our collective memory. To forget would be not only dangerous but offensive; to forget the dead would be akin to killing them a second time.”
(from “Night”)
When a Jew visits Jerusalem for the first time, it is not the first time; it is a homecoming.”
(Interview to Israeli media, 2010)
“Whoever listens to a witness, becomes a witness.”
(Legacy of Holocaust Survivors conference at Yad Vashem’s Valley of the Communities in April 2002)
“When a person doesn’t have gratitude, something is missing in his or her humanity. A person can almost be defined by his or her attitude toward gratitude.”
(The Nobel Peace Prize speech, 1986)
“Think higher, feel deeper.”