The opposite of love is not hate, it's indifference.
No human race is superior; no religious faith is inferior. All collective judgments are wrong. Only racists make them.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote emphasizes equality among all races and faiths, condemning collective judgments as incorrect and the mindset of racism.
Elie Wiesel's quote reflects on the fundamental equality of all human beings, asserting that no race holds superiority over another and that no religious belief is lesser in value. It critiques the tendency to make blanket judgments about groups based on race or religion, labeling such views as inherently racist and wrong. By emphasizing the need to see individuals beyond their group identities, Wiesel promotes a vision of humanity rooted in respect and understanding.
Themes
In practice
Example use cases
In a speech about human rights, one might quote Wiesel to emphasize the importance of rejecting racism.
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.
Certain things, certain events, seem inexplicable only for a time: up to the moment when the veil is torn aside.
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.
No one is as capable of gratitude as one who has escaped the kingdom of night.
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.
Similar quotes
It seems to me that I have always existed and that I possess memories that date back to the Pharaohs.
If you accept the belief that baptism incorporates us in the mystical body of Christ, into the divine DNA, then you might say that the Holy Spirit is present in each of us, and thus we have the capacity for the fullness of redemption, of transformation.
All resistance is a rupture with what is. And every rupture begins, for those engaged in it, through a rupture with oneself.
Well, my book is written-let it go. But if it were only to write over again there wouldn't be so many things left out. They burn in me; and they keep multiplying; but now they can't ever be said. And besides, they would require a library-and a pen warmed up in hell.
We can judge the heart of a man by his treatment of animals.
The only humility that is really ours is not that which we try to show before God in prayer, but that which we carry with us, and carry out, in our ordinary conduct; the insignficances of daily life are the importances and the tests of eternity, because they prove what really is the spirit that possesses us.