Elie Wiesel Quotes

Clarity and consistency are not enough: the quest for truth requires humility and effort.

Let the winds of evidence blow you about as though you are a leaf, with no direction of your own. Beware lest you fight a rearguard retreat against the evidence, grudgingly conceding each foot of ground only when forced, feeling cheated. Surrender to the truth as quickly as you can.

Truth is always served by great minds, even if they fight it.

A philosopher goes where the truth leads and has no patience with mere emotion.

We need a world where the values of science are celebrated: free inquiry, free speech and a healthy skepticism, all coupled with a sense of wonder, a respect for truth and an ability to reason.

To avoid being drawn into error, keep a firm grip on the truth.

Unscientific man is beset by a deplorable desire to have been right. The scientist is distinguished by a desire to be right.

If what you seek is Truth, there is one thing you must have above all else.” “I know. An overwhelming passion for it.” “No. An unremitting readiness to admit you may be wrong.

Teach thy tongue to say 'I do not know', and thou shalt progress.

First and last, what is demanded of genius is love of truth.

I am aware that a philosopher's ideas are not subject to the judgment of ordinary persons, because it is his endeavour to seek the truth in all things, to the extent permitted to human reason by God.

If you shut the door to all errors, truth will be shut out.

I was bold in the pursuit of knowledge, never fearing to follow truth and reason to whatever results they led, and bearding every authority which stood in their way.

The most useful piece of learning for the uses of life is to unlearn what is untrue.

The greatest friend of truth is Time, her greatest enemy is Prejudice, and her constant companion is Humility.

I don't claim to know everything. I claim to be a seeker of knowledge.

As a writer, I am an intellectual. I believe in the ideals of the Enlightenment, I believe in the written word, in dialogue and in truth. I hate lies more than anything else. Most of the time I react by writing.

When you know a thing, to hold that you know it, and when you do not know a thing, to allow that you do not know it - this is knowledge.

I am a humble but very earnest seeker after truth.

I hope that I am generous and tolerant, but certainly on the intellectual side I think that there are discoverable truths, and some things that are closer approximations to the truth than others.

It is not when truth is dirty, but when it is shallow, that the lover of knowledge is reluctant to step into its waters.

I am not 'in pursuit of truth.' It is not my 'quarry.' I am of my human nature a thinker, and conscious of need, responsibility of thinking-speaking with truth. I do not go about hunting 'truths.'

Men need knowledge in order to overpower their passions and master their prejudices.

There's nothing wrong with changing your position to fit the facts; there's everything wrong with changing the facts to fit your position.

Only reason can convince us of those three fundamental truths without a recognition of which there can be no effective liberty: that what we believe is not necessarily good; and that all questions are open.