By Elie Wiesel

True, we are often too weak to stop injustices; 
but the least we can do is protest against them. 

 

True, we are too poor to eliminate hunger; 
but in feeding one child, we protest against hunger. 

True, we are too timid and powerless to take on all the guards of all the political prisons in the world; 
but in offering our solidarity to one prisoner, we denounce all the tormentors.  

True, we are powerless against death; 
but as long as we help one man, one woman, one child live one hour longer in safety and dignity, we affirm a human’s right to live. 

  

Elie Wiesel was a Romanian-born American writer, professor, political activist, Nobel laureate, and Holocaust survivor. This is an excerpt from Sages and Dreamers.