Elie Wiesel Zitate (160 Zitate) | Zitate berühmter Personen (2024)

„Ich habe immer daran geglaubt, daß das Gegenteil von Liebe nicht Haß ist, sondern Gleichgültigkeit. Das Gegenteil von Glaube ist nicht Überheblichkeit, sondern Gleichgültigkeit. Das Gegenteil von Hoffnung ist nicht Verzweiflung, es ist Gleichgültigkeit. Gleichgültigkeit ist nicht der Anfang eines Prozesses, es ist das Ende eines Prozesses.“

— Elie Wiesel

Erinnerung als Gegenwart. Elie Wiesel in Loccum [Mai 1986]. Loccumer Protokolle 25/[19]86, S. 157 books.google http://books.google.de/books?hl=de&id=V9sdAQAAIAAJ&q=gegenteil

„Wir müssen uns immer für eine Seite entscheiden, Neutralität hilft dem Unterdrücker und niemals dem Opfer. Schweigen ermutigt den Folterer und niemals den Gefolterten.“

— Elie Wiesel

„Es kann Zeiten geben, in denen wir nicht in der Lage sind, Ungerechtigkeit zu verhindern, aber es darf nie einen Zeitpunkt geben, an dem wir nicht protestieren. Der Talmud sagt uns, dass der Mensch durch die Rettung eines einzigen Menschen die Welt retten kann.“

— Elie Wiesel

„Jedes Wesen steht im Mittelpunkt der Schöpfung, jedes Wesen rechtfertigt die Schöpfung.“

— Elie Wiesel

Geschichten gegen die Melancholie - Die Weisheit der chassidischen Meister. Freiburg, 1994. Übersetzer: Hanns Bücker. ISBN 3-451-04296-7
Englisch: "Every person is the center of creation — every person is called upon to justify creation." - Somewhere a Master - Further Hasidic Portraits and Legends. Simon & Schuster 1984. p. 190

„Die einen sagen, Hiob hat sehr wohl gelebt, nur sein Leiden ist eine rein literarische Erfindung. Dem halten andere entgegen: Hiob hat niemals gelebt, aber er hat sehr wohl gelitten.“

— Elie Wiesel

Adam oder das Geheimnis des Anfangs. Übersetzer: Hanns Bücker. Freiburg im Breisgau, 1980. S. 211. ISBN 3-451-18952-6
Englisch: "There were those who claimed that Job did exist but that his sufferings are sheer literary invention. Then there where those who declared that while Job never existed, he undeniably did suffer." -Messengers of God - Biblical Portraits and Legends. Summit Books 1985. p. p. 215

“We must always take sides. Neutrality helps the oppressor, never the victim. Silence encourages the tormentor, never the tormented.”

— Elie Wiesel

“Because I remember, I despair. Because I remember, I have the duty to reject despair.”

— Elie Wiesel

Hope, Despair, and Memory (1986)
Kontext: Because I remember, I despair. Because I remember, I have the duty to reject despair. I remember the killers, I remember the victims, even as I struggle to invent a thousand and one reasons to hope.

“It is obvious that the war which Hitler and his accomplices waged was a war not only against Jewish men, women, and children, but also against Jewish religion, Jewish culture, Jewish tradition, therefore Jewish memory.”

— Elie Wiesel, buch Night

Quelle: Night

“In Jewish history there are no coincidences.”

— Elie Wiesel

Interview in the BU Bridge (5 November 2004) http://www.bu.edu/bridge/archive/2004/11-05/wiesel.html
Variante: There are only encounters in history. There are no accidents.

“Which is worse? Killing with hate or killing without hate?”

— Elie Wiesel

“One more stab to the heart, one more reason to hate. One less reason to live.”

— Elie Wiesel, buch Night

Quelle: Night

“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, buch Night

Quelle: Night (1960)
Kontext: "Don't be deluded. Hitler has made it clear that he will annihilate all Jews before the clock strikes twelve."
I exploded:
"What do you care what he said? Would you want us to consider him a prophet?"
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."

“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.”

— Elie Wiesel

Nobel acceptance speech (1986)

“BERISH: Men and women are being beaten, tortured and killed—how can one not be afraid of Him? True, they are victims of men. But the killers kill in His name. Not all? True, but numbers are unimportant. Let one killer kill for His glory, and He is guilty. Every man who suffers or causes suffering, every woman who is raped, every child who is tormented implicates Him. What, you need more? A hundred or a thousand? Listen: either He is responsible or He is not. If He is let’s judge Him; if He is not, let Him stop judging us.”

— Elie Wiesel, The Trial of God

Act I (p. 54)
The Trial of God (1979)

“The opposite of love is not hate, it's indifference. The opposite of art is not ugliness, it's indifference. The opposite of faith is not heresy, it's indifference. And the opposite of life is not death, it's indifference. Because of indifference, one dies before one actually dies. To be in the window and watch people being sent to concentration camps or being attacked in the street and do nothing, that's being dead.”

— Elie Wiesel

US News & World Report (27 October 1986)

“There may be times when we are powerless to prevent injustice, but there must never be a time when we fail to protest. The Talmud tells us that by saving a single human being, man can save the world.”

— Elie Wiesel

Hope, Despair, and Memory (1986)

“Friendship marks a life even more deeply than love. Love risks degenerating into obsession, friendship is never anything but sharing.”

— Elie Wiesel

“Human suffering anywhere concerns men and women everywhere.”

— Elie Wiesel, buch Night

Quelle: Night

“To forget the dead would be akin to killing them a second time.”

— Elie Wiesel, buch Night

Quelle: Night

“I believe mysticism is a very serious endeavor. One must be equipped for it. One doesn't study calculus before studying arithmetic.”

— Elie Wiesel

As quoted in "10 Questions for Elie Wiesel" by Jeff Chu in TIME (22 January 2006) http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1151803,00.html
Kontext: I believe mysticism is a very serious endeavor. One must be equipped for it. One doesn't study calculus before studying arithmetic. In my tradition, one must wait until one has learned a lot of Bible and Talmud and the Prophets to handle mysticism. This isn't instant coffee. There is no instant mysticism.

“In mysticism you can jump from A to Z. But the ultimate objective is the same. It's knowledge. It's truth.”

— Elie Wiesel

In a 1978 interview with John S. Friedman, published in The Paris Review 26 (Spring 1984); and in Elie Wiesel : Conversations (2002) edited by Robert Franciosi, p. 87
Kontext: Miracles in mysticism don't occupy such an important place. It's metaphor, for the peasants, for the crowds, to impress people. What does mysticism really mean? It means the way to attain knowledge. It's close to philosophy, except in philosophy you go horizontally while in mysticism you go vertically. You plunge into it. Philosophy is a slow process of logic and logical discourse: A bringing B bringing C and so forth. In mysticism you can jump from A to Z. But the ultimate objective is the same. It's knowledge. It's truth.

“A moral society is committed to memory: I believe in memory. The Greek word alethia means Truth, Things that cannot be forgotten. I believe in those things that cannot be forgotten and because of that so much in my work deals with memory… What do all my books have in common? A commitment to memory.”

— Elie Wiesel

"Building a Moral Society", Chamberlin Lecture at Lewis & Clark College (1995)
Kontext: An immoral society betrays humanity because it betrays the basis for humanity, which is memory. An immoral society deals with memory as some politicians deal with politics. A moral society is committed to memory: I believe in memory. The Greek word alethia means Truth, Things that cannot be forgotten. I believe in those things that cannot be forgotten and because of that so much in my work deals with memory... What do all my books have in common? A commitment to memory.

“Miracles in mysticism don't occupy such an important place.”

— Elie Wiesel

In a 1978 interview with John S. Friedman, published in The Paris Review 26 (Spring 1984); and in Elie Wiesel : Conversations (2002) edited by Robert Franciosi, p. 87
Kontext: Miracles in mysticism don't occupy such an important place. It's metaphor, for the peasants, for the crowds, to impress people. What does mysticism really mean? It means the way to attain knowledge. It's close to philosophy, except in philosophy you go horizontally while in mysticism you go vertically. You plunge into it. Philosophy is a slow process of logic and logical discourse: A bringing B bringing C and so forth. In mysticism you can jump from A to Z. But the ultimate objective is the same. It's knowledge. It's truth.

“For us, forgetting was never an option. Remembering is a noble and necessary act.”

— Elie Wiesel

Hope, Despair, and Memory (1986)
Kontext: For us, forgetting was never an option. Remembering is a noble and necessary act. The call of memory, the call to memory, reaches us from the very dawn of history. No commandment figures so frequently, so insistently, in the Bible. It is incumbent upon us to remember the good we have received, and the evil we have suffered.

“It's up to you now, and we shall help you — that my past does not become your future.”

— Elie Wiesel

Speech at the UN World Peace Day (21 September 2006) New York, Speech in UN Webcast (00:16:35) http://webcast.un.org/ramgen/specialevents/se050921.rm

“An immoral society betrays humanity because it betrays the basis for humanity, which is memory.”

— Elie Wiesel

"Building a Moral Society", Chamberlin Lecture at Lewis & Clark College (1995)
Kontext: An immoral society betrays humanity because it betrays the basis for humanity, which is memory. An immoral society deals with memory as some politicians deal with politics. A moral society is committed to memory: I believe in memory. The Greek word alethia means Truth, Things that cannot be forgotten. I believe in those things that cannot be forgotten and because of that so much in my work deals with memory... What do all my books have in common? A commitment to memory.

“You must intervene. You must interfere. And that is actually the motto of human rights.”

— Elie Wiesel

Commencement ceremony http://piermarton.info/elie-wiesel-do-not-stand-idly-by-if-you-witness-injustice/ (Class of 2011) at Washington University in St. Louis.
Kontext: The greatest commandment to me in the Bible is not the Ten Commandments. (First of all, it’s too difficult to observe; second, we all pretend to observe.) My commandment is ‘Thou shall not stand idly by.’ Which means, when you witness an injustice: Don’t stand idly by. When you hear of a person or a group being persecuted: Do not stand idly by. When there is something wrong with the community around you or far away: Do not stand idly by. You must intervene. You must interfere. And that is actually the motto of human rights.

“As long as one dissident is in prison, our freedom will not be true. As long as one child is hungry, our lives will be filled with anguish and shame.”

— Elie Wiesel

Nobel acceptance speech (1986)
Kontext: As long as one dissident is in prison, our freedom will not be true. As long as one child is hungry, our lives will be filled with anguish and shame. What all these victims need above all is to know that they are not alone; that we are not forgetting them, that when their voices are stifled we shall lend them ours, that while their freedom depends on ours, the quality of our freedom depends on theirs.

“My commandment is ‘Thou shall not stand idly by.’”

— Elie Wiesel

Commencement ceremony http://piermarton.info/elie-wiesel-do-not-stand-idly-by-if-you-witness-injustice/ (Class of 2011) at Washington University in St. Louis.
Kontext: The greatest commandment to me in the Bible is not the Ten Commandments. (First of all, it’s too difficult to observe; second, we all pretend to observe.) My commandment is ‘Thou shall not stand idly by.’ Which means, when you witness an injustice: Don’t stand idly by. When you hear of a person or a group being persecuted: Do not stand idly by. When there is something wrong with the community around you or far away: Do not stand idly by. You must intervene. You must interfere. And that is actually the motto of human rights.

“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.”

— Elie Wiesel

Interview in O : The Oprah Magazine (November 2000)

“For the dead and the living, we must bear witness.”

— Elie Wiesel

“One person of integrity can make a difference.”

— Elie Wiesel

“If the only prayer you say throughout your life is "Thank You," then that will be enough.”

— Elie Wiesel

“Write only if you cannot live without writing. Write only what you alone can write.”

— Elie Wiesel

“No human race is superior; no religious faith is inferior. All collective judgments are wrong. Only racists make them.”

— Elie Wiesel

"Have You Learned The Most Important Lesson Of All?" http://www.thehypertexts.com/Essays%20Articles%20Reviews%20Prose/Elie_Wiesel_Essay_Have_You_Learned_The_Most_Important_Lesson_Of_All.htm, published in Parade Magazine (24 May 1992)