Elie Wiesel, the peace advocate and activist, famously warned that “the opposite of love is not hate, it is indifference.”
‘Action Is the Only Remedy to Indifference’: Elie Wiesel’s Most Powerful Quotes

Remarks on Presenting the Congressional Gold Medal to Elie Wiesel and on Signing the Jewish Heritage Week Proclamation

Forty years ago, a young man awoke, and he found himself an orphan in an orphaned world. What have I learned in the last 40 years — small things. I learned the perils of language and those of silence. I learned that in extreme situations when human lives and dignity are at stake, neutrality is a sin. It helps the killers not the victims. I learned the meaning of solitude, Mr. President. We were alone, desperately alone. Today is April 19th, and April 19, 1943, the Warsaw Ghetto rose in arms against the onslaught of the Nazis. They were so few and so young and so helpless, and nobody came to their help. And they had to fight what was then the mightiest legion in Europe. Every underground received help, except the Jewish underground. And yet, they managed to fight and resist and push back those Nazis and their accomplices for 6 weeks.