Elie Wiesel - Night (1956)

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I told him that I did not believe that they could burn people in our age, that humanity would never tolerate it...

Elie Wiesel
The stars were only sparks of the fire which devoured us. Should that fire die out one day, there would be nothing left in the sky but dead stars, dead eyes.

Elie Wiesel
Life is really fascinated only by death. It vibrates only when it comes in contact with death.

Elie Wiesel
In the beginning there was faith - which is childish; trust - which is vain; and illusion - which is dangerous.

Elie Wiesel
His cold eyes stared at me. At last, he said wearily: "I have more faith in Hitler than in anyone else. He alone has kept his promises, all his promises, to the Jewish people.

Elie Wiesel
For in the end, it is all about memory, its sources and its magnitude, and, of course, its consequences.

Elie Wiesel
Man prefers to blame himself for all possible sins and crimes rather than come to the conclusion that God is capable of the most flagrant injustice. I still blush every time I think of the way God makes fun of human beings, his favorite toys.

Elie Wiesel
He explained to me with great insistence that every question posessed a power that did not lie in the answer.

Elie Wiesel
The darkness enveloped us. All I could hear was the violin and it was as if Juliek's soul had become the bow. He was playing his life...He played that which he would never play again.

Elie Wiesel
Every question possessed a power that was lost in the answer...

Elie Wiesel
The world? The world is not interested in us. Today, everything is possible, even the crematoria...

Elie Wiesel
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
Wherever men and women are persecuted because of their race, religion, or political views, that place must - at that moment - become the center of the universe.

Elie Wiesel
It was pitch dark. I could hear only the violin, and it was as though Juliek's soul were the bow. He was playing his life. The whole of his life was gliding on the strings—his last hopes, his charred past, his extinguished future. He played as he would never play again...When I awoke, in the daylight, I could see Juliek, opposite me, slumped over, dead. Near him lay his violin, smashed, trampled, a strange overwhelming little corpse.

Elie Wiesel
I wanted to come back to Sighet to tell you the story of my death. So that you could prepare yourselves while there was still time. To live? I don't attach any importance to my life any more. I'm alone. No, I wanted to come back, and to warn you. And see how it is, no one will listen to me.

Elie Wiesel
No one may speak for the dead, no one may interpret their mutilated dreams and visions.

Elie Wiesel
I shall never forget Juliek. How could I forget this concert given before an audience of the dead and dying? Even today, when I hear that particular piece by Beethoven, my eyes close and out of the darkness emerges the pale and melancholy face of my Polish comrade bidding farewell to an audience of dying men.

Elie Wiesel
I am not so naïve as to believe that this slim volume will change the course of history or shake the conscience of the world. Books no longer have the power they once did. Those who kept silent yesterday will remain silent tomorrow.

Elie Wiesel
I needed to know that there was such a thing as love and that it brought smiles and joy in its wake.

Elie Wiesel