QUOTES FROM ELIE WEISEL, HOLOCAUST SURVIVOR, NOBEL PEACE PRIZE WINNER

Eliezer "Elie" Wiesel; born September 30, 1928) is a Romanian-born Jewish-American professor and political activist. He is the author of 57 books, including Night, a work based on his experiences as a prisoner in the Auschwitz, Buna, and Buchenwald concentration camps.
When Wiesel was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1986, the Norwegian Nobel Committee called him a "messenger to mankind," stating that through his struggle to come to terms with "his own personal experience of total humiliation and of the utter contempt for humanity shown in Hitler's death camps", as well as his "practical work in the cause of peace", Wiesel had delivered a powerful message "of peace, atonement and human dignity" to humanity.

'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.'
Elie Wiesel

'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

'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

'There is divine beauty in learning... To learn means to accept the postulate that life did not begin at my birth. Others have been here before me, and I walk in their footsteps. The books I have read were composed by generations of fathers and sons, mothers and daughters, teachers and disciples. I am the sum total of their experiences, their quests. And so are you.' Elie Wiesel

'I swore never to be silent whenever and wherever human beings endure suffering and humiliation. We must always take sides.'
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

'We must take sides. Neutrality helps the oppressor, never the victim. Silence encourages the tormentor, never the tormented. Sometimes we must interfere. When human lives are endangered, when human dignity is in jeopardy, national borders and sensitivities become irrelevant. 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 The Night Trilogy: Night/Dawn/The Accident

'No human being is illegal.'
Elie Wiesel

[From the  MSC Justice Desk]