The opposite of love is not hate, it's indifference.
Elie WieselRead
My faceless neighbor spoke up: “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.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote reflects a deep disillusionment with faith in humanity compared to the certainty of evil.
In this quote, Elie Wiesel illustrates a disturbing perspective on faith and trust during a time of great moral crisis. The speaker expresses a profound disappointment in humanity's capacity for good, contrasting it with an unsettling acknowledgment of Adolf Hitler's consistent fulfillment of his deadly promises. This bleak outlook signals a struggle between hope for better leadership and the grim reality of a malevolent ruler’s unyielding commitment to his destructive ideologies.
Themes
FaithEvilDisillusionmentHumanityTruth
In practice
Example use cases
In a speech discussing the importance of confronting injustice, I might quote Wiesel to illustrate the dangers of misplaced faith.
More from Elie Wiesel
All quotes →With every cell of my being and with every fiber of my memory I oppose the death penalty in all forms. I do not believe any civilized society should be at the service of death. I don't think it's human to become an agent of the angel of death.
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Certain things, certain events, seem inexplicable only for a time: up to the moment when the veil is torn aside.
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We're alone, but we are capable of communicating to one another both our loneliness and our desire to break through it. You say, 'I'm alone.' Someone answers, 'I'm alone too.' There's a shift in the scale of power. A bridge is thrown between the two abysses.
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No one is as capable of gratitude as one who has escaped the kingdom of night.
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My loyalty to my people, to our people, and to Israel comes first and prevents me from saying anything critical of Israel outside Israel… As a Jew I see my role as a melitz yosher, a defender of Israel: I defend even her mistakes… I must identify with whatever Israel does – even with her errors.
Elie WieselRead
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