110+ Elie Wiesel Quotes On Indifference, God And Holocaust

Elie Wiesel was an American novelist, Holocaust survivor, and Nobel Peace Prize laureate. He is best known for his book Night, an autobiographical account of his experiences in the Auschwitz and Buchenwald concentration camps during World War II. Wiesel was also a strong advocate for human rights and peace, and was active in the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. Following is our collection on famous quotes by Elie Wiesel on indifference, god, holocaust.

Top 10 Elie Wiesel Quotes

1. What hurts the victim most is not the cruelty of the oppressor, but the silence of the bystander.
2. There may be times when we are powerless to prevent injustice, but there must never be a time when we fail to protest.
3. Take sides. Neutrality helps the oppressor, never the victim.
4. The opposite of love is not hate, but indifference. Indifference creates evil. Hatred is evil itself. Indifference is what allows evil to be strong, what gives it power.
5. Even in darkness it is possible to create light.
6. I swore never to be silent whenever and wherever human beings endure suffering and humiliation.
7. Because I remember, I despair. Because I remember, I have the duty to reject despair.
8. Indifference, to me, is the epitome of evil.
9. Never shall I forget these things, even if I am condemned to life as long as God himself
10. For the dead and the living, we must bear witness.

Elie Wiesel Image Quotes

Even in darkness it is possible to create light. — Elie Wiesel

Indifference, to me, is the epitome of evil. — Elie Wiesel

For the dead and the living, we must bear witness. — Elie Wiesel

A destruction, an annihilation that only man can provoke, only man can prevent. — Elie Wiesel

Elie Wiesel Short Quotes

• Today, as yesterday, a nation is judged by its attitude towards refugees.
• In order to fly, you have to give up the ground you are standing on.
• A destruction, an annihilation that only man can provoke, only man can prevent.
• Ultimately, the only power to which man should aspire is that which he exercises over himself.
• I write to understand as much as to be understood.
• One person of integrity can make a difference.
• In the word question, there is a beautiful word - quest. I love that word.
• Night is purer than day; it is better for thinking and loving and dreaming.
• I learned to trust the threats of enemies before the promises of friends.
• The yellow star? Oh well, what of it? You dont die of it.

Elie Wiesel Quotes About Indifference

The opposite of love is not hate, it's indifference. The opposite of art is not ugliness, it's indifference. The opposite of faith is not heresy, it's indifference. And the opposite of life is not death, it's indifference. — Elie Wiesel

The opposite of love is not hate, it's indifference. — Elie Wiesel

Our obligation is to give meaning to life and in doing so to overcome the passive, indifferent life. — Elie Wiesel

A Jew must be sensitive to the pain of all human beings. A Jew cannot remain indifferent to human suffering... The mission of the Jewish people has never been to make the world more Jewish, but to make it more human. — Elie Wiesel

The opposite of faith is not heresy but indifference — Elie Wiesel

The opposite of life is not death, it's indifference. — Elie Wiesel

Because of indifference, one dies before one actually dies. — Elie Wiesel

Only one enemy is worse than despair: indifference. In every area of human creativity, indifference is the enemy; indifference of evil is worse than evil, because it is also sterile. — Elie Wiesel

Fanaticism in many lands has surfaced as the greatest threat to the world. Indifference to its consequences would be a serious mistake. — Elie Wiesel

It's not hatred that kills people, it's indifference — Elie Wiesel

Elie Wiesel Quotes About God

Mankind must remember that peace is not God's gift to his creatures; peace is our gift to each other. — Elie Wiesel

I have not lost faith in God. I have moments of anger and protest. Sometimes I've been closer to him for that reason. — Elie Wiesel

A religious person answers to God, not to the elected or non-elected official. — Elie Wiesel

Man, as long as he lives, is immortal. One minute before his death he shall be immortal. But one minute later, God wins. — Elie Wiesel

What [Franz] Kafka says about the Tower of Babel: In the beginning there were actually many languages, and then as a punishment God gave the world a single language. And then they stopped understanding each other. — Elie Wiesel

Perhaps some day someone will explain how, on the level of man, Auschwitz was possible; but on the level of God, it will forever remain the most disturbing of mysteries. — Elie Wiesel

I believe in God--in spite of God! I believe in Mankind--in spite of Mankind! I believe in the Future--in spite of the Past! — Elie Wiesel

Never shall I forget those moments that murdered my God and my soul and turned my dreams to ashes. — Elie Wiesel

Hope is like peace. It is not a gift from God. It is a gift only we can give one another. — Elie Wiesel

This day I ceased to plead. I was no longer capable of lamentation. On the contrary, I felt very strong. I was the accuser, God the accused. — Elie Wiesel

Elie Wiesel Quotes About Holocaust

Silence encourages the tormentor, never the tormented. — Elie Wiesel

To forget the dead would be akin to killing them a second time. — Elie Wiesel

The Holocaust is a sacred subject. One should take off one's shoes when entering its domain, one should tremble each time one pronounces the word. — Elie Wiesel

Never shall I forget that night, the first night in camp, which has turned my life into one long night, seven times cursed and seven times sealed. — Elie Wiesel

That I survived the Holocaust and went on to love beautiful girls, to talk, to write, to have toast and tea and live my life - that is what is abnormal. — Elie Wiesel

The Holocaust is not a cheap soap opera. The Holocaust is not a romantic novel. It is something else. — Elie Wiesel

I was there when God was put on trial....At the end of the trial, they used the word chayav, rather than 'guilty'. It means 'He owes us something'. Then we went to pray. — Elie Wiesel

Worse still is that mankind - the non-Jewish world - learned nothing from the Holocaust: The event which had no precedent in history, which should be equal to the Revelation at Sinai in significance. — Elie Wiesel

Every Jew, somewhere in his being, should set apart a zone of hate - healthy virile hate - for what the German personifies and for what persists in the German. — Elie Wiesel

It is true that not all the victims were Jews, but all the Jews were victims — Elie Wiesel

Elie Wiesel Quotes About Israel

I imagine, like all his predecessors, Barak Obama would like to achieve greatness in bringing peace in the Middle East. I hope it will not be at the expense of Israel. — Elie Wiesel

I would like to see real peace and a state of Israel living peacefully alongside a state of Palestine. — Elie Wiesel

It's clear to me that one can't be Jewish without Israel. Religious or non-religious, Zionist or non-Zionist, Ashkenazi or Sephardic - all these will not exist without Israel. — Elie Wiesel

There is Israel, for us at least. What no other generation had, we have. We have Israel in spite of all the dangers, the threats and the wars, we have Israel. We can go to Jerusalem. Generations and generations could not and we can. — Elie Wiesel

If I were in the government, I would persuade the prime minister to see the beauty in the fact that people see Israel as a haven - from their sadness to their hope. — Elie Wiesel

Now, when I hear that Christians are getting together in order to defend the people of Israel, of course it brings joy to my heart. And it simply says, look, people have learned from history. — Elie Wiesel

My loyalty to my people, to our people, and to Israel comes first and prevents me from saying anything critical of Israel outside Israel… As a Jew I see my role as a melitz yosher, a defender of Israel: I defend even her mistakes… I must identify with whatever Israel does – even with her errors. — Elie Wiesel

Will you join me in hearing the case for keeping weapons from those who preach death to Israel and America? — Elie Wiesel

Elie Wiesel Quotes About Hope

Just as man cannot live without dreams, he cannot live without hope. If dreams reflect the past, hope summons the future. — Elie Wiesel

Just as despair can come to one only from other human beings, hope, too, can be given to one only by other human beings. — Elie Wiesel

What is man? Hope turned to dust. No. What is man? Dust turned to hope. — Elie Wiesel

We must choose between the violence of adults and the smiles of children. Between the ugliness of hate and the will to oppose it. Between inflicting suffering and humiliation on our fellow man and offering him the solidarity and hope he deserves. — Elie Wiesel

Memory feeds a culture, nourishes hope and makes a human, human. — Elie Wiesel

In spite of despair, hope must exist. In spite of suffering, humanity must prevail. And in spite of all the differences in the world, the worst enemy, the worst peril, is indifference. — Elie Wiesel

My students are very special. They are my source of pride, my source of joy, my source of hope. I am terribly fond of my students. — Elie Wiesel

I have learned two lessons in my life: first, there are no sufficient literary, psychological, or historical answers to human tragedy, only moral ones. Second, just as despair can come to one another only from other human beings, hope, too, can be given to one only by other human beings. — Elie Wiesel

All I hope is that the American coalition is doing its best to prevent civilian casualties and the killing of innocent people. — Elie Wiesel

One thing is that [Tibetans] should not give up hope. That's - even [if] it lasts a century. My discussions with the Dalai Lama always were about that. — Elie Wiesel

Elie Wiesel Quotes About Gratitude

When a person doesn't have gratitude, something is missing in his or her humanity. — Elie Wiesel

For me, every hour is grace. And I feel gratitude in my heart each time I can meet someone and look at his or her smile. — Elie Wiesel

No one is as capable of gratitude as one who has escaped the kingdom of night. — Elie Wiesel

Gratitude is a word that I cherish. Gratitude is what defines the happiness and humanity of the human being. — Elie Wiesel

The knowledge that I have acquired must not remain imprisoned in my brain. I owe it to many men and women to do something with it. I feel the need to pay back what was given to me. Call it gratitude. — Elie Wiesel

No one is as capable of gratitude as one who has emerged from the kingdom of night. 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. — Elie Wiesel

When a person doesn't have gratitude, something is missing in his or her humanity. A person can almost be defined by his or her attitude toward gratitude. — Elie Wiesel

Elie Wiesel Quotes About Friendship

Friendship marks a life even more deeply than love. Love risks degenerating into obsession, friendship is never anything but sharing. — Elie Wiesel

Friendship marks a life even more deeply than love. — Elie Wiesel

Even in darkness it is possible to create light and encourage compassion. That it is possible to feel free inside a prison. That even in exile, friendship exists and can become an anchor. That one instant before dying, man is still immortal. — Elie Wiesel

For the good of all, I say: Be careful, the brutality of the world must not be more powerful or attractive than love and friendship. — Elie Wiesel

Elie Wiesel Quotes About Silence

I swore never to be silent whenever and wherever human beings endure suffering and humiliation. We must always take sides. Neutrality helps the oppressor, never the victim. Silence encourages the tormentor, never the tormented. — Elie Wiesel

We must always take sides. Neutrality helps the oppressor, never the victim. Silence encourages the tormentor, never the tormented. — Elie Wiesel

I rarely speak about God. To God, yes. I protest against Him. I shout at Him. But to open a discourse about the qualities of God, about the problems that God imposes, theodicy, no. And yet He is there, in silence, in filigree. — Elie Wiesel

I was very, very religious. And of course I wrote about it in 'Night.' I questioned God's silence. So I questioned. I don't have an answer for that. Does it mean that I stopped having faith? No. I have faith, but I question it. — Elie Wiesel

The philosophers are wrong: it is not words that kill, it is silence. — Elie Wiesel

Language failed me very often, but then, the substitute for me was silence, but not violence. — Elie Wiesel

Elie Wiesel Quotes About Faith

No human race is superior; no religious faith is inferior. All collective judgments are wrong. Only racists make them. — Elie Wiesel

His cold eyes stared at me. At last, he said wearily: "I have more faith in Hitler than in anyone else. He alone has kept his promises, all his promises, to the Jewish people. — Elie Wiesel

My faith is a wounded faith, but it's not without faith. My life is not without faith. — Elie Wiesel

In the beginning there was faith - which is childish; trust - which is vain; and illusion - which is dangerous. — Elie Wiesel

My anger rises up within faith and not outside it. — Elie Wiesel

My faith is a wounded faith, but my life is not without faith. I didn't divorce God, but I'm quarrelling and arguing and questioning, it's a wounded faith. — Elie Wiesel

Abraham is trying to obey God, but not to kill. I feel that moment is one of the defining moments of Jewish faith. — Elie Wiesel

Elie Wiesel Quotes About Life

Be careful with words, they're dangerous. Be wary of them. They begat either demons or angels. It's up to you to give life to one or the other. Be careful, I tell you, nothing is as dangerous as giving free rein to words — Elie Wiesel

Emphasis must be put on learning: there is no substitute to education. It can be briefly formulated in a few words: always, whatever you do in life, think higher and feel deeper. — Elie Wiesel

There is divine beauty in learning... To learn means to accept the postulate that life did not begin at my birth. Others have been here before me, and I walk in their footsteps. — Elie Wiesel

Whatever you think in life... think higher and feel deeper. — Elie Wiesel

Once you bring life into the world, you must protect it. We must protect it by changing the world. — Elie Wiesel

I decided to devote my life to telling the story because I felt that having survived I owe something to the dead. and anyone who does not remember betrays them again. — Elie Wiesel

Human beings all change. Not what they are but who they are. We have the power to change what we do with our life and turn it into our destiny. — Elie Wiesel

Bread, soup - these were my whole life. I was a body. Perhaps less than that even: a starved stomach. The stomach alone was aware of the passage of time. — Elie Wiesel

I've given my life to the principle and the ideal of memory, and remembrance. — Elie Wiesel

Nevertheless, we are led to believe that true words can communicate more than truth, they communicate what life is all about, that it's threatened, when it's threatened, when it's in danger, then it becomes a curse or a blessing. — Elie Wiesel

Elie Wiesel Quotes About Despair

We have to go into the despair and go beyond it, by working and doing for somebody else, by using it for something else. — Elie Wiesel

Look, if I were alone in the world, I would have the right to choose despair, solitude and self-fulfillment. But I am not alone. — Elie Wiesel

You know how many reasons we have to be desperate and despairing, the world is not learning anything. We have seen that. — Elie Wiesel

If there is one person on the planet who still is suffering from loneliness and from pain or despair, and we don't know about it, or we don't want to know about it, then something is wrong with the world. — Elie Wiesel

He wants to see whether we are capable of overcoming out base instincts, of killing the Satan within ourselves. We have no right to despair. And if he punishes us mercilessly, it is a sign that He loves us that much more. — Elie Wiesel

Elie Wiesel Quotes About People

Young people want to learn, they are thirsty for knowledge, they want to understand and remember. The main thing is to teach them where not to go. Oppression, not to go; dictatorship, not to go; racism and prejudice, absolutely not to go. This is a moral plan [for society]. — Elie Wiesel

In the word question, there is a beautiful word - quest. I love that word. We are all partners in a quest. The essential questions have no answers. You are my question, and I am yours - and then there is dialogue. The moment we have answers, there is no dialogue. Questions unite people. — Elie Wiesel

I marvel at the resilience of the Jewish people. Their best characteristic is their desire to remember. No other people has such an obsession with memory. — Elie Wiesel

I remember those faces of people who were good I saw that. I saw a father who gave his bread to his son and his son gave back the bread to his father. That, to me, was such a defeat of the enemies, will of the enemies, theories of the enemies, aspirations, here [in Auschwitz]. — Elie Wiesel

They are committing the greatest indignity human beings can inflict on one another: telling people who have suffered excruciating pain and loss that their pain and loss were illusions. (v) — Elie Wiesel

I think this century more than any other really has seen the phenomenon of people being uprooted in such numbers, such a degree. They even have a word for it: The refugees. It's a new word, a 20th Century word, but refugee is actually a misnomer. — Elie Wiesel

It all happened so fast. The ghetto. The deportation. The sealed cattle car. The fiery altar upon which the history of our people and the future of mankind were meant to be sacrificed. — Elie Wiesel

Most people think that shadows follow, precede or surround beings or objects. The truth is that they also surround words, ideas, desires, deeds, impulses and memories. — Elie Wiesel

Terrorism must be outlawed by all civilized nations — not explained or rationalized, but fought and eradicated. Nothing can, nothing will justify the murder of innocent people and helpless children. — Elie Wiesel

"Am I my brother's keeper?" There you have the whole Biblical understanding that you are your brother's keeper. You also have a whole other understanding in which you are not your brother's keeper. And I've heard some extremely bright people take this position. — Elie Wiesel

Elie Wiesel Quotes About Jewish

I think the Messianic concept, which is the Jewish offering to mankind, is a great victory. What does it mean? It means that history has a sense, a meaning, a direction; it goes somewhere, and necessarily in a good direction--the Messiah. — Elie Wiesel

I do not recall a Jewish home without a book on the table. — Elie Wiesel

In Jewish history there are no coincidences. — Elie Wiesel

In my little town, Sighet, which is in Romania, Hungary-Romania, but a real shtetl, a little [Jewish] village - and we began with the Chumash [Pentateuch], probably at age four. — Elie Wiesel

The Jewish tradition of learning-is learning. Adam chose knowledge instead of immortality. — Elie Wiesel

Some of the men spoke of God: His mysterious ways, the sins of the Jewish people, and the redemption to come. As for me, I had ceased to pray. I concurred with Job! I was not denying His existence, but I doubted His absolute justice. — Elie Wiesel

The only place where I felt at home, on familiar ground, was the Jewish cemetery. And yet I had never set foot in it before. Children had been forbidden to enter. — Elie Wiesel

Historically, I come from Jewish history. I had the classic upbringing in the Yeshiva, learning, learning, and more learning. — Elie Wiesel

The sincere Christian knows that what died in Auschwitz was not the Jewish people but Christianity. — Elie Wiesel

It is obvious that the war which Hitler and his accomplices waged was a war not only against Jewish men, women, and children, but also against Jewish religion, Jewish culture, Jewish tradition, therefore Jewish memory. — Elie Wiesel

Elie Wiesel Famous Quotes And Sayings

Sometimes we must interfere. When human lives are endangered, when human dignity is in jeopardy, national borders and sensitivities become irrelevant. Whenever men or women are persecuted because of their race, religion, or political views, that place must - at that moment - become the center of the universe. — Elie Wiesel

I believe that all the survivors are mad. One time or another their madness will explode. You cannot absorb that much madness and not be influenced by it. That is why the children of survivors are so tragic. I see them in school. They don't know how — Elie Wiesel

Even in darkness it is possible to create light. — Elie Wiesel

No human being is illegal. That is a contradiction in terms. Human beings can be beautiful or more beautiful, they can be fat or skinny, they can be right or wrong, but illegal? How can a human being be illegal? — Elie Wiesel

Indifference, to me, is the epitome of evil. — Elie Wiesel

For the dead and the living, we must bear witness. — Elie Wiesel

Why is war such an easy option? Why does peace remain such an elusive goal? We know statesmen skilled at waging war, but where are those dedicated enough to humanity to find a way to avoid war — Elie Wiesel

In the face of suffering, one has no right to turn away, not to see. In the face of injustice, one may not look the other way. When someone suffers, and it is not you, that person comes first. One's very suffering gives one priority. . . . To watch over one who grieves is a more urgent duty than to think of God. — Elie Wiesel

We are all teachers, or should be. Anyone who relays experience to another person is a teacher. Not to transmit your experience is to betray it. — Elie Wiesel

When you die and go to heaven our maker is not going to ask, 'why didn't you discover the cure for such and such? why didn't you become the Messiah?' The only question we will be asked in that precious moment is 'why didn't you become you?' — Elie Wiesel

you can do something. You can, even for one person Don't turn away; help. Because those who suffer, often suffer not because of the person or the group that inflicts the suffering; they seem to suffer because nobody cares. — Elie Wiesel

Once upon a time refugee meant somebody who has a refuge, found a place, a haven where he could find refuge. — Elie Wiesel

For us it's not easy to be conformist, I cannot stand to be conformist, I don't accept what it is, I like to say no. If I see an injustice I scream. — Elie Wiesel

You’re shaking … so am I. It’s because of Jerusalem, isn’t it? One doesn’t go to Jerusalem, one returns to it. That’s one of its mysteries. — Elie Wiesel

Education in the key to preventing the cycle of violence and hatred that marred the 20th century from repeating itself in the 21st century. — Elie Wiesel

Mankind needs peace more than ever, for our entire planet, threatened by nuclear war, is in danger of total destruction. A destruction only man can provoke, only man can prevent. — Elie Wiesel

Sometimes I am asked if I know 'the response to Auschwitz; I answer that not only do I not know it, but that I don't even know if a tragedy of this magnitude has a response. — Elie Wiesel

What does mysticism really mean? It means the way to attain knowledge. It's close to philosophy, except in philosophy you go horizontally while in mysticism you go vertically. — Elie Wiesel

In the concentration camps, we discovered this whole universe where everyone had his place. The killer came to kill, and the victims came to die. — Elie Wiesel

I remember, May 1944: I was 15-and-a-half, and I was thrown into a haunted universe where the story of the human adventure seemed to swing irrevocably between horror and malediction. — Elie Wiesel

Bite your lips, little brother...Don't cry. Keep your anger, your hate, for another day, for later. The day will come but not now...Wait. Clench your teeth and wait. — Elie Wiesel

Peace is our gift to each other. — Elie Wiesel

Every moment contains a spark of eternity. — Elie Wiesel

All those - or most of those - who went through the experience during the Second World War - they want to remember more - more and more. It's never enough because we feel that we have to tell the story. And no one can tell the story fully. — Elie Wiesel

Human suffering anywhere concerns men and women everywhere. — Elie Wiesel

One day when I was able to get up, I decided to look at myself in the mirror on the opposite wall. I had not seen myself since the ghetto. From the depths of the mirror, a corpse was contemplating me. The look in his eyes as he gazed at me has never left me. — Elie Wiesel

[Friedrich] Nietzsche said something marvellous, he said "Madness is not a consequence of uncertainty but of certainty", and this is fanaticism. — Elie Wiesel

Because I survived, I must do everything possible to help others. — Elie Wiesel

The darkest days in my life after the war, after the war, was when I discovered that the ... most of the members and commanders of the Einsatz group that were doing the killings, not even in gas chambers, but killing with machine guns, had college degrees from German universities and PhD's and MD's. Couldn't believe it. — Elie Wiesel

There are victories of the soul and spirit. Sometimes, even if you lose, you win. — Elie Wiesel

I never compared Nazis into communism, but communism was the same thing, the end justifies the means. Whatever the means. — Elie Wiesel

When you see the abyss, and we have looked into it, then what? There isn't much room at the edge -- one person, another, not many. If you are there, others cannot be there. If you are there, you become a protective wall. What happens? You become part of t — Elie Wiesel

With every cell of my being and with every fiber of my memory I oppose the death penalty in all forms. I do not believe any civilized society should be at the service of death. I don't think it's human to become an agent of the angel of death. — Elie Wiesel

Nobody is stronger, nobody is weaker than someone who came back. There is nothing you can do to such a person because whatever you could do is less than what has already been done to him. We have already paid the price. — Elie Wiesel

This is the duty of our generation as we enter the twenty-first century -- solidarity with the weak, the persecuted, the lonely, the sick, and those in despair. It is expressed by the desire to give a noble and humanizing meaning to a community in which all members will define themselves not by their own identity but by that of others. — Elie Wiesel

For me, every hour is grace. — Elie Wiesel

Without memory, there is no culture. Without memory, there would be no civilization, no society, no future. — Elie Wiesel

The most important question a human being has to face... What is it? The question, Why are we here? — Elie Wiesel

Suffering pulls us farther away from other human beings. It builds a wall made of cries and contempt to separate us. — Elie Wiesel

There is no word in Hebrew for religion, by the way. — Elie Wiesel

Not to transmit an experience is to betray it. — Elie Wiesel

I listen to music when I write. I need the musical background. Classical music. I'm behind the times. I'm still with Baroque music, Gregorian chant, the requiems, and with the quartets of Beethoven and Brahms. That is what I need for the climate, for the surroundings, for the landscape: the music. — Elie Wiesel

How can one explain the attraction terror holds for some minds — and why for intellectuals? . . .In a totalitarian and terrorist regime, man is no longer a unique being with infinite possibilities and limitless choices but a number, a puppet, with just this difference — numbers and puppets are not susceptible to fear. — Elie Wiesel

That is my major preoccupation, memory, the kingdom of memory. I want to protect and enrich that kingdom, glorify that kingdom and serve it. — Elie Wiesel

It may well be that our means are fairly limited and our possibilities restricted when it comes to applying pressure on our government But is this a reason to do nothing? Despair is nor an answer Neither is resignation Resignation only leads to indifference, which is not merely a sin but a punishment. — Elie Wiesel

I don't think [governments] use [religious repression ] as a weapon, they use it as a as a means of - of oppression. To stifle opposition. To mute resistance. — Elie Wiesel

Life Lessons by Elie Wiesel

1. Elie Wiesel taught us that even in the darkest of times, it is important to maintain hope and faith. He also showed us that it is essential to use our voice to speak out against injustice and to fight for what is right.
2. He also demonstrated the power of resilience and perseverance, showing us that even in the face of tremendous adversity, it is possible to overcome and to continue to strive for a better future.
3. Finally, Elie Wiesel taught us that it is important to never forget the past and to use it as a source of strength and inspiration.