What gives life meaning when everything is stripped away? Elie Wiesel’s haunting memoir, Night, confronts this question head-on.
Forged in the unimaginable horrors of Nazi concentration camps during the Holocaust, Wiesel’s account offers profound, often shattering, insights into faith, suffering, survival, and the enduring power—and fragility—of the human spirit.
This collection gathers 70 meaningful quotes from Night, organized by chapter or section, capturing the essence of his harrowing experience and enduring reflections.
*Please see the important note on page numbers and the specific edition used at the end of this collection.*
Preface & Foreword Quotes
Before the narrative begins, Wiesel frames the immense weight of memory and the purpose behind sharing his testimony.
“In the beginning there was faith – which is childish; trust – which is vain; and illusion – which is dangerous.”
~Elie Wiesel, Night, (Theme: Faith, Deception), Preface, Page 10
“Those who kept silent yesterday will remain silent tomorrow.”
~Élie Wiesel, Night, (Theme: Silence, Complicity), Preface, Page 12
“Did I write it so as not to go mad or, on the contrary, to go mad in order to understand the nature of madness?”
~Elie Wiesel, Night, (Theme: Madness, Survival), Preface, Page 13
“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, Night, (Theme: Memory, Identity), Foreword by François Mauriac, Page 8
“…I believe it important to emphasize how strongly I feel that books, just like people, have a destiny. Some invite sorrow, others joy, some both.”
~Elie Wiesel, Night, (Theme: Literature, Destiny), Preface, Page 14
“To forget the dead would be akin to killing them a second time.”
~Elie Wiesel, Night, (Theme: Memory, Duty), Preface, Page 15
“For in the end, it is all about memory, its sources and its magnitude, and, of course, its consequences.”
~Elie Wiesel, Night, (Theme: Memory, Legacy), Preface, Page 15
These introductory thoughts set the stage for Eliezer’s journey, beginning with his devout youth in Sighet, soon to be shattered.
Chapter 1 Quotes
The narrative opens in Sighet, Transylvania, where young Eliezer is deeply devoted to his faith, studying Talmud and Kabbalah, and seeking guidance from Moishe the Beadle.
Why did I pray? A strange question. Why did I live? Why did I breathe?… “Man raises himself toward God by the questions he asks Him,”… “That is the true dialogue… You will find the true answers, Eliezer, only within yourself!” “And why do you pray, Moshe?” I asked him. “I pray to the God within me that He will give me the strength to ask Him the right questions.”
~Elie Wiesel, Night, (Characters: Eliezer and Moshe the Beadle; Theme: Faith, Inquiry), Chapter 1, Pages 4-5
“I pray to the God within me that He will give me the strength to ask Him the real questions.”
~Elie Wiesel, Night, (Character: Moshe the Beadle; Theme: Faith, Self-Reflection), Chapter 1, Page 5
“There are a thousand and one gates leading into the orchard of mystical truth. Every human being has his own gate. He must not err and wish to enter the orchard through a gate other than his own. That would present a danger not only for the one entering but also for those who are already inside.”
~Elie Wiesel, Night, (Characters: Moshe the Beadle to Eliezer; Theme: Spirituality, Individuality), Chapter 1, Page 5
“And in the course of those evenings a conviction grew in me that [he] would draw me with him into eternity, into that time where question and answer would become ONE.”
~Elie Wiesel, Night, (Character: Eliezer as narrator; Theme: Faith, Eternity), Chapter 1, Page 5
“Yes, we even doubted his resolve to exterminate us. Annihilate an entire people? Wipe out a population dispersed throughout so many nations? So many millions of people! By what means? In the middle of the twentieth century!”
~Elie Wiesel, Night, (Character: Eliezer as narrator; Theme: Denial, Disbelief), Chapter 1, Page 8
“The news spread through Sighet like wildfire. Soon that was all people talked about. But not for long. Optimism soon revived: The Germans will not come this far. They will stay in Budapest. For strategic reasons, for political reasons … In less than three days, German Army vehicles made their appearance on our streets.”
~Elie Wiesel, Night, (Character: Eliezer as narrator; Theme: Denial, Invasion), Chapter 1, Page 9
“On the seventh day of Passover, the curtain finally rose: the Germans arrested the leaders of the Jewish community. From that moment on, everything happened very quickly. The race toward death had begun. First edict: Jews were prohibited from leaving their residences for three days, under penalty of death. Moishe the Beadle came running to our house. ‘I warned you,’ he shouted. And left without waiting for a response.”
~Elie Wiesel, Night, (Character: Eliezer as narrator; Theme: Persecution, Warning), Chapter 1, Page 10
“It was only after the war that I found out who had knocked that night. It was an inspector of the Hungarian police, a friend of my father’s. Before we entered the ghetto, he had told us, ‘Don’t worry. I’ll warn you if there is danger.’ Had he been able to speak to us that night, we might still have been able to flee … But by the time we succeeded in opening the window, it was too late. There was nobody outside.”
~Elie Wiesel, Night, (Character: Eliezer as narrator; Theme: Escape, Regret), Chapter 1, Page 14
“The street resembled fairgrounds deserted in haste. There was a little of everything: suitcases, briefcases, bags, knives, dishes, banknotes, papers, faded portraits. All the things one planned to take along and finally left behind. They had ceased to matter.”
~Elie Wiesel, Night, (Character: Eliezer as narrator; Theme: Loss, Abandonment), Chapter 1, Page 17
“That was when I began to hate them, and my hatred remains our only link today. They were our first oppressors. They were the first faces of hell and death.”
~Elie Wiesel, Night, (Character: Eliezer as narrator; Theme: Hatred, Oppression), Chapter 1, Page 19
“Oh God, Master of the Universe, in your infinite compassion, have mercy on us …”
~Elie Wiesel, Night, (Characters: Eliezer and his father; Theme: Faith, Desperation), Chapter 1, Page 20
“The ghetto was not guarded. One could enter and leave as one pleased. Maria, our former maid, came to see us. Sobbing, she begged us to come with her to her village where she had prepared a safe shelter. My father wouldn’t hear of it. He told me and my big sisters, ‘If you wish, go there. I shall stay here with your mother and the little one …’ Naturally, we refused to be separated.”
~Elie Wiesel, Night, (Character: Eliezer as narrator; Theme: Family, Choice), Chapter 1, Page 20
“No one was praying for the night to pass quickly. The stars were but sparks of the immense conflagration that was consuming us.”
~Elie Wiesel, Night, (Character: Eliezer as narrator; Theme: Despair, Symbolism), Chapter 1, Page 21
The journey grows darker as Eliezer and his family are forced into cattle cars, heading toward an unknown fate.
Chapter 2 Quotes
Chapter 2 traps Eliezer and his family in a sealed cattle car, where conditions deteriorate, fear mounts, and Madame Schächter’s prophetic screams foreshadow the horrors of the crematoria upon arrival at Birkenau.
“The world had become a hermetically sealed cattle car.”
~Elie Wiesel, Night, (Character: Eliezer as narrator; Theme: Dehumanization), Chapter 2, Page 24
“In front of us, those flames. In the air, the smell of burning flesh. It must have been around midnight. We had arrived. In Birkenau.”
~Elie Wiesel, Night, (Character: Eliezer as narrator; Theme: Death, Arrival), Chapter 2, Page 28
At Birkenau, the reality hits hard—separations, selections, and the initial erosion of faith begin.
Chapter 3 Quotes
Chapter 3 brings Eliezer to Auschwitz. He faces the crematoria smoke, is separated forever from his mother and sister, receives his number, and witnesses the depths of brutality, leading him to profoundly question God’s justice.
“THE BELOVED OBJECTS that we had carried with us from place to place were now left behind in the wagon and, with them, finally, our illusions.”
~Elie Wiesel, Night, (Character: Eliezer as narrator; Theme: Loss, Reality), Chapter 3, Page 29
“Men to the left! Women to the right! Eight words spoken quietly, indifferently, without emotion. Eight simple, short words. Yet that was the moment when I left my mother.”
~Elie Wiesel, Night, (Characters: Eliezer as narrator and an SS officer; Theme: Separation), Chapter 3, Page 29
“I didn’t know that this was the moment in time and the place where I was leaving my mother and Tzipora forever.”
~Elie Wiesel, Night, (Character: Eliezer as narrator; Theme: Loss, Realization), Chapter 3, Page 29
“We musn’t give up hope, even now as the sword hangs over our heads. So taught our sages…”
~Elie Wiesel, Night, (Characters: Older men to their sons; Theme: Hope, Tradition), Chapter 3, Page 31
“How was it possible that men, women, and children were being burned and that the world kept silent?”
~Elie Wiesel, Night, (Character: Eliezer as narrator; Theme: Silence, Injustice), Chapter 3, Page 32
“I told him that I could not believe that human beings were being burned in our times; the world would never tolerate such crimes… ‘The world? The world is not interested in us. Today, everything is possible, even the crematoria.’”
~Elie Wiesel, Night, (Characters: Eliezer and Elie’s father; Theme: Disbelief, Reality), Chapter 3, Page 33
“The world? The world is not interested in us. Today, everything is possible, even the crematoria…”
~Elie Wiesel, Night, (Character: Elie’s father; Theme: Indifference), Chapter 3, Page 33
“Everybody around us was weeping. Someone began to recite Kaddish, the prayer for the dead. I don’t know whether, during the history of the Jewish people, men have ever before recited Kaddish for themselves.”
~Elie Wiesel, Night, (Character: Eliezer as narrator; Theme: Faith, Mourning), Chapter 3, Page 33
“Never shall I forget that night, the first night in camp, that turned my life into one long night seven times sealed. Never shall I forget that smoke… Never shall I forget those flames that consumed my faith forever… Never shall I forget those moments that murdered my God and my soul and turned my dreams to ashes… Never.”
~Elie Wiesel, Night, (Character: Eliezer as narrator; Theme: Trauma, Faith), Chapter 3, Page 34
“For us it meant true equality: nakedness. We trembled in the cold.”
~Elie Wiesel, Night, (Character: Eliezer as narrator; Theme: Dehumanization), Chapter 3, Page 35
“The night had passed completely… I too had become a different person. The student of Talmud, the child I was, had been consumed by the flames… My soul had been invaded—and devoured—by a black flame.”
~Elie Wiesel, Night, (Character: Eliezer as narrator; Theme: Transformation, Loss), Chapter 3, Page 37
“…we came to a new block… ‘Comrades, you are now in the concentration camp Auschwitz… Don’t lose hope… keep your faith… let there be camaraderie among you… Help each other. That is the only way to survive’”
~Elie Wiesel, Night, (Character: Young Polish man in charge; Theme: Hope, Solidarity), Chapter 3, Page 41
“…tattooed numbers on our left arms. I became A-7713. From then on, I had no other name.”
~Elie Wiesel, Night, (Character: Eliezer as narrator; Theme: Dehumanization), Chapter 3, Page 42
“I concurred with Job! I was not denying His existence, but I doubted His absolute justice.”
~Elie Wiesel, Night, (Character: Eliezer as narrator; Theme: Faith, Doubt), Chapter 3, Page 45
Life in the camps grinds on, reducing individuals to bodies focused on survival amidst selections and casual cruelty.
Chapter 4 Quotes
In Buna, forced labor, meager rations, and the constant threat of selection dominate daily life. Moments of kindness are rare, while brutality, like the public hanging of a child, leaves indelible marks.
“They pointed their fingers, the way one might choose cattle, or merchandise.”
~Elie Wiesel, Night, (Character: Eliezer as narrator; Theme: Dehumanization), Chapter 4, Page 49
“I was nothing but a body. Perhaps even less: a famished stomach. The stomach alone was measuring time.”
~Elie Wiesel, Night, (Character: Eliezer as narrator; Theme: Hunger, Survival), Chapter 4, Page 52
“Bite your lips, little brother…Don’t cry. Keep your anger, your hate, for another day, for later…Wait. Clench your teeth and wait…”
~Elie Wiesel, Night, (Characters: Young French woman to Eliezer; Theme: Resilience), Chapter 4, Page 53
“We were not afraid… Every bomb that exploded filled us with joy and gave us new confidence in life.”
~Elie Wiesel, Night, (Character: Eliezer as narrator; Theme: Hope, Defiance), Chapter 4, Page 60
“Then came the march past the victims… the third rope was still moving: the child… lingering between life and death… Behind me, I heard the same man asking: ‘For God’s sake, where is God?’ And from within me, I heard a voice answer: ‘Where He is? This is where—hanging here from this gallows…’ That night, the soup tasted of corpses.”
~Elie Wiesel, Night, (Characters: Eliezer as narrator and a man; Theme: Faith, Horror), Chapter 4, Pages 64-65
As the Jewish New Year arrives amid the horrors of the camp, Eliezer’s faith reaches a breaking point.
Chapter 5 Quotes
During Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur services in the camp, Eliezer feels profound anger and rebellion against God. Life becomes a series of selections, inheritances are passed in moments, and a fateful decision about evacuation seals his destiny.
“What are You, my God? I thought angrily. How do You compare to this stricken mass gathered to affirm to You their faith, their anger, their defiance?… Why do you go on troubling these poor people’s wounded minds, their ailing bodies?”
~Elie Wiesel, Night, (Character: Eliezer as narrator; Theme: Faith, Anger), Chapter 5, Page 66
“Blessed be God’s name? Why, but why would I bless Him? Every fiber in me rebelled… How could I say to Him: Blessed be Thou, Almighty… who chose us among all nations to be tortured day and night…?”
~Elie Wiesel, Night, (Character: Eliezer as narrator; Theme: Faith, Rebellion), Chapter 5, Page 67
“Yes, man is very strong, greater than God… these men here, whom You have betrayed… what do they do? They pray before You! They praise Your name!”
~Elie Wiesel, Night, (Character: Eliezer’s thoughts), Chapter 5, Pages 67-68
“But now, I no longer pleaded for anything. I was no longer able to lament. On the contrary, I felt very strong. I was the accuser, God the accused.”
~Elie Wiesel, Night, (Character: Eliezer as narrator; Theme: Faith, Defiance), Chapter 5, Page 68
“YOM KIPPUR… Should we fast? … To fast could mean a more certain, more rapid death… We needed to show God that even here, locked in hell, we were capable of singing His praises.”
~Elie Wiesel, Night, (Character: Eliezer as narrator; Theme: Faith, Tradition), Chapter 5, Page 69
“‘Here, take this knife,’ he said… ‘Also take this spoon…’ My inheritance …”
~Elie Wiesel, Night, (Characters: Eliezer’s father, Shlomo to Eliezer; Theme: Survival, Legacy), Chapter 5, Page 75
“‘Don’t be deluded. Hitler has made it clear that he will annihilate all Jews…’ … ‘I have more faith in Hitler than in anyone else. He alone has kept his promises… to the Jewish people.’”
~Elie Wiesel, Night, (Dialogue: Eliezer and a faceless neighbor; Theme: Despair, Irony), Chapter 5, Pages 80-81
“‘Let’s be evacuated with the others,’ I said… ‘Let’s hope we won’t regret it, Eliezer.’ AFTER THE WAR, I learned the fate of those who had remained… They were… liberated by the Russians, two days after the evacuation.”
~Elie Wiesel, Night, (Characters: Eliezer and his father; Theme: Choice, Regret), Chapter 5, Page 82
A grueling death march through snow tests the limits of Eliezer’s physical and emotional endurance.
Chapter 6 Quotes
Forced evacuation leads to a brutal death march. Eliezer struggles against exhaustion and the temptation of death, witnessing acts of cruelty and a final, poignant violin concert amidst the dying.
“… Death enveloped me, it suffocated me… The idea of dying, of ceasing to be, began to fascinate me… To break rank, to let myself slide to the side of the road …”
~Elie Wiesel, Night, (Character: Eliezer as narrator; Theme: Despair, Temptation), Chapter 6, Page 86
“When the SS were tired, they were replaced. But no one replaced us. Chilled to the bone… out of breath, we pressed on.”
~Elie Wiesel, Night, (Character: Eliezer as narrator; Theme: Endurance), Chapter 6, Page 87
“We were the masters of nature, the masters of the world. We had transcended everything—death, fatigue, our natural needs… we were the only men on earth.”
~Elie Wiesel, Night, (Character: Eliezer as narrator; Theme: Resilience), Chapter 6, Page 87
“I shall always remember that smile. From what world did it come from?”
~Elie Wiesel, Night, (Character: Eliezer as narrator; Theme: Hope, Mystery), Chapter 6, Page 90
“All I could hear was the violin, and it was as if Juliek’s soul had become his bow. He was playing his life… His charred past, his extinguished future… I shall never forget Juliek… this concert given before an audience of the dead and dying… When I awoke… I saw Juliek facing me, hunched over, dead. Next to him lay his violin, trampled, an eerily poignant little corpse.”
~Elie Wiesel, Night, (Characters: Eliezer as narrator about Juliek; Theme: Humanity, Art, Death), Chapter 6, Pages 94-95
“The darkness enveloped us… How could I forget this concert given before an audience of the dead and dying?”
~Elie Wiesel, Night, (Character: Eliezer as narrator; Theme: Humanity, Memory), Chapter 6, Page 95
The ordeal continues with another horrifying train journey, further stripping away humanity.
Chapter 7 Quotes
Packed into open cattle cars in freezing conditions, the prisoners fight desperately over scraps of bread thrown by German civilians, revealing the depths of their degradation.
“Then the train resumed its journey, leaving in its wake, in a snowy field in Poland, hundreds of naked orphans without a tomb.”
~Elie Wiesel, Night, (Character: Eliezer as narrator; Theme: Loss, Abandonment), Chapter 7, Page 99
Arrival at Buchenwald brings Eliezer face-to-face with his father’s final decline and his own conflicting instincts for survival.
Chapter 8 Quotes
At Buchenwald, Eliezer witnesses his father’s final suffering and death, grappling with guilt and the brutal reality of self-preservation in the camps.
“I knew that I was no longer arguing with him but with Death itself, with Death that he had already chosen.”
~Elie Wiesel, Night, (Character: Eliezer as narrator about his father), Chapter 8, Page 105
“His breathing was labored. His eyes were closed. But I was convinced that he was seeing everything. That he was seeing the truth in all things.”
~Elie Wiesel, Night, (Characters: Eliezer as narrator about his father; Theme: Death, Insight), Chapter 8, Page 109
“One more stab to the heart, one more reason to hate. One less reason to live.”
~Elie Wiesel, Night, (Character: Eliezer as narrator; Theme: Loss, Despair), Chapter 8, Page 109
“‘Listen to me, kid… In this place, it is every man for himself… Not even your father… stop giving your ration of bread and soup to your old father… you should be getting his rations…’”
~Elie Wiesel, Night, (Characters: the Blockälteste to Eliezer; Theme: Survival, Morality), Chapter 8, Page 110
“I did not weep, and it pained me that I could not weep… And deep inside me, if I could have searched the recesses of my feeble conscience, I might have found something like: Free at last! …”
~Elie Wiesel, Night, (Character: Eliezer as narrator; Theme: Guilt, Relief), Chapter 8, Page 112
Liberation finally arrives, but the experience leaves an indelible mark on the survivors.
Chapter 9 Quotes
American forces liberate Buchenwald. Consumed by physical needs, the freed prisoners focus on survival. Eliezer catches a glimpse of himself, forever altered by his ordeal.
“OUR FIRST ACT AS FREE MEN was to throw ourselves onto the provisions. That’s all we thought about. No thought of revenge, or of parents. Only of bread.”
~Elie Wiesel, Night, (Character: Eliezer as narrator; Theme: Survival, Instinct), Chapter 9, Page 115
“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, Night, (Character: Eliezer as narrator; Theme: Trauma, Identity), Chapter 9, Page 115
Wiesel’s Nobel Peace Prize speech reflects on the broader lessons of his experience, emphasizing the duty to act against suffering.
Nobel Peace Prize Acceptance Speech Quotes
In his 1986 speech, included in later editions, Wiesel speaks to the universal responsibility to combat indifference and injustice, extending the memoir’s call to remember and act.
“Neutrality helps the oppressor, never the victim. Silence encourages the tormentor, never the tormented.”
~Elie Wiesel, Night, (Theme: Responsibility, Silence), Nobel Peace Prize Acceptance Speech, Page 118
“Human suffering anywhere concerns men and women everywhere.”
~Elie Wiesel, Night, (Theme: Empathy, Humanity), Nobel Peace Prize Acceptance Speech, Page 119
“And action is the only remedy to indifference, the most insidious danger of all.”
~Elie Wiesel, Night, (Theme: Action, Indifference), Nobel Peace Prize Acceptance Speech, Page 119
Common Night Quote Questions
What Are Some Good Quotes from the Book Night?
Beyond those listed above, these capture the essence of Wiesel’s experience:
“To forget the dead would be akin to killing them a second time.”
~ Elie Wiesel, Night, Preface, Page 15
“Never shall I forget that night… that turned my life into one long night… Never shall I forget those moments that murdered my God and my soul…”
~ Elie Wiesel, Night, Chapter 3, Page 34
“I pray to the God within me that He will give me the strength to ask Him the real questions.”
~ Elie Wiesel, Night, (Character: Moshe the Beadle), Chapter 1, Page 5
What Is a Famous Quote from Elie Wiesel?
One of his most widely recognized quotes, encapsulating his life’s work:
“I swore never to be silent whenever and wherever human beings endure suffering and humiliation. We must always take sides.”
~Elie Wiesel
Conclusion: The Lasting Echoes of Night
Wiesel’s words in Night burn with raw truth—each quote a testament to survival, loss, and the fight to remember against indifference. They challenge us to confront the darkness of history and the enduring questions of faith and humanity.
Which quote from Night lingers most with you?
Important Note on Page Numbers:
Page numbers cited (e.g., Page 10) reference the Hill and Wang, January 16, 2006 Revised paperback edition (ISBN-13: 978-0374500016). They WILL vary across different editions. Please verify against your specific edition for academic citations.
Cite This Page (MLA):
Mortis, Jeremy. “70 Meaningful Night Book Quotes With Page Numbers.” Ageless Investing, 22 Mar. 2025, agelessinvesting.com/night-book-quotes/.
Cite This Page (APA):
Mortis, J. (2025, March 22). *70 Meaningful Night book quotes with page numbers*. Ageless Investing. Retrieved [Date You Accessed], from https://agelessinvesting.com/night-book-quotes/
Jeremy Mortis, founder of Ageless Investing, applies a rigorous analytical approach (the SPARK framework) to distill timeless wisdom and contextualized quotes from classic literature, saving you time while deepening understanding. Learn more about Jeremy’s unique background and methodology on his author bio page.