The Librarian of Auschwitz

Books are extremely dangerous; they make people think.

Life, any life, is very short. But if you've managed to be happy for at least an instant, it will have been worth living.

A book is like a trapdoor that leads to a secret attic: You can open it and go inside. And your world is different.

Within their pages, books contain the wisdom of the people who wrote them. Books never lose their memory.

Throughout history, all dictators, tyrants, and oppressors, whatever their ideology—whether Aryan, African, Asian, Arab, Slav, or any other racial background; whether defenders of popular revolutions, or the privileges of the upper classes, or God’s mandate, or martial law—have had one thing in common: the vicious persecution of the written word. Books are extremely dangerous; they make people think.

In a place like Auschwitz, where everything is designed to make you cry, a smile is an act of defiance.

Literature has the same impact as a match lit in the middle of a field in the middle of the night. The match illuminates relatively little, but it enables us to see how much darkness surrounds it.

The strongest athlete isn't the one who finishes first. That athlete is the fastest. The strongest athlete is the one who gets up again every time he falls, the one who doesn't stop when he feels a pain in his side, the one who doesn't abandon the race, no matter how far away the finish line is. That runner is a winner whenever he reaches the finish line, even if he comes in last. Sometimes, no matter how much you want it, being the fastest isn't an option, because your legs aren't as long or your lungs as large. But you can always choose to be the strongest. It's up to you - your willpower and your effort.

Os livros conservam nas suas páginas a sabedoria de quem os escreveu. Os livros nunca perdem a memória.

It doesn’t matter how many schools the Nazis close, he would say to them. Each time someone stops to tell a story and children listen, a school has been established.

A person waiting for you somewhere is like a match you strike at night in the couuntryside. It may not be able to light up everything, but it does show you the way back home.

Os corajosos não são os que não têm medo. Esses são os temerários, os que ignoram o risco e se colocam em perigo sem consciência das consequências. Uma pessoa que não tenha consciência do perigo pode pôr em risco todos os que estejam a seu lado. Esse é o género de gente que não quero na minha equipa. Do que preciso é dos que tremem, mas não cedem, dos que arriscam e mesmo assim seguem em frente.

Brave people are not the ones who aren't afraid. Those are reckless people who ignore the risk; they put themselves and others in danger. That's not the sort of person I want on my team. I need the ones who know the risk-- whose legs shake, but carry on.

You are what you dream,

Adults wear themselves out pointlessly searching for a joy they never find. But in children, it bursts out of every pore.

But those who believe that flowers grow in vases don't understand anything about literature. The library has now become her first-aid kit, and she's going to give the children a little of the medicine that helped her recover her smile when she thought she'd lost it forever.

She smiles again at the thought of all those pages. Since then, she has discovered that her life can be made much more profound, because books multiply your experiences and enable you to meet people...

The most beautiful flowers emerge from the foulest dung heap. So maybe, thinks Dita, God isn’t a watchmaker but a gardener.

There are those who might think that this was an act of useless bravery in an extermination camp when there were other, more pressing concerns-- books don't cure illnesses; they can't be used as weapons to defeat an army of executioners; they don't fill your stomach or quench your thirst. It's true: culture isn't necessary for the survival of mankind; for that, you only need bread and water. It's also true that with bread to eat and water to drink, humans survive; but with only this, humanity dies. If human beings aren't deeply moved by beauty, if they don't close their eyes and activate their imaginations, if they aren't capable of asking themselves questions and discerning the limits of their ignorance, then they are men or women, but they are not complete persons.

The strongest athlete isn’t the one who finishes first. That athlete is the fastest. The strongest athlete is the one who gets up again every time he falls, the one who doesn’t stop when he feels a pain in his side, the one who doesn’t abandon the race, no matter how far away the finish line is. That runner is a winner whenever he reaches the finish line, even if he comes in last.

The real disease is intolerance

But hate is too much like love: Neither of them is a matter of choice

It's easy to commend the hero whose actions are visible. But how do you measure the bravery of those who step aside?

We’re stronger than them because our hearts are stronger. We’re better than them because our hearts are more powerful.

Adults are corrupted. That's why young people are so important. You can still shape them, improve them.

Los mayores se desgastan inútilmente buscando una felicidad que nunca encuentran; en cambio, a los niños, la felicidad les brota de la palma de las manos.