Quotes from Dawn

Elie Wiesel ·  81 pages

Rating: (11.4K votes)


“Night is purer than day; it is better for thinking and loving and dreaming. At night everything is more intense, more true. The echo of words that have been spoken during the day takes on a new and deeper meaning. The tragedy of man is that he doesn't know how to distinguish between day and night. He says things at night that should only be said by day.”
― Elie Wiesel, quote from Dawn


“I needed to know that there was such a thing as love and that it brought smiles and joy in its wake.”
― Elie Wiesel, quote from Dawn


“Night is purer than day; it is better for thinking, loving and dreaming. At night everything is more intense, more true. The echo of words that have been spoken during the day takes on a new and deeper meaning.”
― Elie Wiesel, quote from Dawn


“There are moments when I think it will never end, that it will last indefinitely. It's like the rain. Here the rain, like everything else, suggests permanence and eternity. I say to myself: it's raining today and it's going to rain tomorrow and the next day, the next week and the next century.”
― Elie Wiesel, quote from Dawn


“It was the beginning of the war. I was twelve years old, my parents were alive, and God still dwelt in our town.”
― Elie Wiesel, quote from Dawn



“The silence of two people is deeper than the silence of one.”
― Elie Wiesel, quote from Dawn


“A man hates his enemy because he hates his own hate.”
― Elie Wiesel, quote from Dawn


“Where is God to be found? In suffering or in rebellion? When is a man most truly a man? When he submits or when he refuses? Where does suffering lead him? To purification or to bestiality?”
― Elie Wiesel, quote from Dawn


“The night lifted, leaving behind it a grayish light the color of stagnant water. Soon there was only a tattered fragment of darkness, hanging in mid-air, the other side of the window. Fear caught my throat. The tattered fragment of darkness had a face. The face was my own.”
― Elie Wiesel, quote from Dawn


“Love is this and love is that; man is born to love; he is only alive when he is in the presence of a woman he loves or should love.”
― Elie Wiesel, quote from Dawn



“The tragedy of man is that he doesn’t know how to distinguish between day and night.”
― Elie Wiesel, quote from Dawn


“Night is purer than day; it is better for thinking and loving and dreaming. At night everything is more intense, more true. The echo of words that have been spoken during the day takes on a new and deeper meaning.”
― Elie Wiesel, quote from Dawn


“A mn ages hs enemy because he hates his own hate. He says to himself: I hate him not because he's my enemy, not because he hates me, but because he arouses me to hate.”
― Elie Wiesel, quote from Dawn


“You are the sum total of all that we have been,” said the youngster who looked like my former self. “In a way we are the ones to execute John Dawson. Because you can’t do it without us. Now, do you see?” I was beginning to understand. An act so absolute as that of killing involves not only the killer but, as well, those who have formed him. In murdering a man I was making them murderers.”
― Elie Wiesel, quote from Dawn


“How are we ever to disarm evil and abolish death as a means to an end?”
― Elie Wiesel, quote from Dawn



“How are we ever to disarm evil and abolish death as a means to an end? How are we ever to break the cycle of violence and rage? Can terror coexist with justice? Does murder call for murder, despair for revenge? Can hate engender anything but hate? The”
― Elie Wiesel, quote from Dawn


“There is nothing sacred, nothing uplifting, in hatred or in death. In”
― Elie Wiesel, quote from Dawn


“man is born to love; he is only alive when he is in the presence of a woman he loves or should love. I”
― Elie Wiesel, quote from Dawn


“The condemned man’s traditional last meal is a joke,” I said loudly, “a joke in the worst possible taste, an insult to the corpse that he is about to be. What does a man care if he dies with an empty stomach?” The”
― Elie Wiesel, quote from Dawn


“As a child I was afraid of death. I was not afraid to die, but every time I thought of death I shuddered.”
― Elie Wiesel, quote from Dawn



“She is gazing out into the night, and the night has a thousand eyes, which are mine.”
― Elie Wiesel, quote from Dawn


“Soon there was only a tattered fragment of darkness, hanging in midair, the other side of the window. Fear caught my throat. The tattered fragment of darkness had a face. Looking at it, I understood the reason for my fear. The face was my own.”
― Elie Wiesel, quote from Dawn


“Beggars inspired me with mingled feelings of love and fear. I knew that I ought to be kind to them, for they might not be what they seemed.”
― Elie Wiesel, quote from Dawn


“The tragedy of man is that he doesn’t know how to distinguish between day and night. He says things at night that should only be said by day.” He”
― Elie Wiesel, quote from Dawn


“I’m going to teach you the art of distinguishing between day and night. Always look at a window, and failing that look into the eyes of a man. If you see a face, any face, then you can be sure that night has succeeded day. For, believe me, night has a face.” Then,”
― Elie Wiesel, quote from Dawn



“Where is God to be found? In suffering or in rebellion? When is a man most truly a man? When he submits or when he refuses? Where does suffering lead him? To purification or to bestiality?”
― Elie Wiesel, quote from Dawn


“The revolver was black and nearly new. I was afraid to even touch it, for in it lay all the whole difference between what I was and what I was going to be.”
― Elie Wiesel, quote from Dawn


“Dawn is purely a work of fiction, but I wrote it to look at myself in a new way. Obviously I did not live this tale, but I was implicated in its ethical dilemma from the moment that I assumed my character’s place.”
― Elie Wiesel, quote from Dawn


“So I wrote this novel in order to explore distant memories and buried doubts: What would have become of me if I had spent not just one year in the camps, but two or four? If I had been appointed kapo? Could I have struck a friend? Humiliated an old man? And”
― Elie Wiesel, quote from Dawn


About the author

Elie Wiesel
Born place: in Sighet, Romania
Born date September 30, 1928
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