Open Heart, ELIE WEISEL

           I still believe in man in spite of man. I believe in language even though it has been wounded, deformed, and perverted by the enemies of mankind. And I continue to cling to words because it is up to us to transform them into instruments of comprehension rather than contempt. It is up to us to choose whether we wish to use them to curse or to heal, to wound or to console.
         As a Jew, I believe in the coming of the Messiah. But of course this does not mean that the world will become Jewish; just that it will become more welcoming, more human. I belong, after all, to a generation that has learned that whatever the question, indifference and resignation are not the answer.
        Illness may diminish me, but it will not destroy me. The body is not eternal, but the idea of the soul is. The brain will be buried, but memory will survive it. Such is the miracle: A tale about despair becomes a tale against despair.

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I know that every question implicates the other, just as every word can become prayer. If life is not a celebration, why remember it? If life- mine or that of my fellow man- is not an offering to the other, what are we doing on this earth?
For I have learned, over the course of years, to observe man's mystical capacities, and in spite of the contradictions inherent to my testimonies, I persist in believing in them.