There is so much to be done, there is so much that can be done. One person – a Raoul Wallenberg, an Albert Schweitzer, Martin Luther King, Jr. – one person of integrity, can make a difference, a difference of life and death.
As long as one dissident is in prison, our freedom will not be true. As long as one child is hungry, our life will be filled with anguish and shame. What all these victims need above all is to know that they are not alone; that we are not forgetting them, that when their voices are stifled we shall lend them ours, that while their freedom depends on ours, the quality of our freedom depends on theirs.
We know that every moment is a moment of grace, every hour an offering; not to share them would mean to betray them. Our lives no longer belong to us alone; they belong to all those who need us desperately.
Excerpts from Elie Wiesel Nobel Peace Prize Acceptance Speech, 1986
March 15, 2007 at 10:44 am
elie wiesel is a real inspiration. no doubt in my mind. i love this extract — he is right: only one person is needed to start a chain-reaction.
March 15, 2007 at 2:06 pm
Trudat Auleiia. A friend had loan me his novel “Night” to read and I couldn’t put it down. It moved me tremendously! These excerpts from his speech comes to my mind periodically, so I decided to share it.
Stay blessed.
March 23, 2007 at 2:00 pm
I watched Elie wiesel on Oprah’s show and I was moved.
I hope to find the book around here.