Quotes: Personal responsibility
4 quotes on this theme, each with its source and insight
The quotes
“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.”
Source: Nobel Peace Prize acceptance speech, Oslo, December 10, 1986 · Check the source
Verified attributionWhat we know
- What is documented
- Documented in the transcript of Elie Wiesel’s Nobel Peace Prize acceptance speech delivered in Oslo on December 10, 1986.
Spoken in his Nobel acceptance speech, this line turns Holocaust witness into an ethical command: failing to choose in the face of suffering often preserves systems of oppression. Wiesel urges public speech and moral engagement on behalf of the persecuted.
“I have never seasoned a truth with the sauce of a lie in order to digest it more easily.”
Source: The Abyss (L'Œuvre au noir), 1968 · Check the source
Verified attributionWhat we know
- What is documented
- The sentence appears in L’Œuvre au noir (The Abyss) as part of Zénon’s reflection on intellectual honesty.
- What remains uncertain
- Attribution to Marguerite Yourcenar is verified; the supplied English wording is a translation rather than the original French phrasing.
The line insists that intellectual integrity means refusing to make reality palatable by tacking on lies: Yourcenar’s image shows that altering a fact to ease digestion corrupts thought. In The Abyss the metaphor ties moral clarity to the hard work of examining one’s beliefs.
“I see History as a relay race in which one of us, before dropping in his tracks, must carry one stage further the challenge of being a man.”
Source: Promise at Dawn, 1961 · Check the source
Disputed attributionWhat we know
- What is documented
- The wording is strongly attributed to Romain Gary and is consistent with Promise at Dawn, though direct verification against a specific edition is lacking.
- What remains uncertain
- Attribution is probable but edition‑dependent: no translator, edition, or page number has been securely identified for the supplied wording.
The relay metaphor insists that moral duty is passed on: each person inherits a collective task and must extend it before dying. The line is strongly linked to Romain Gary and fits the themes of Promise at Dawn — it emphasizes ethical continuity over competition.
“We are victims of ourselves; others are merely an excuse”
Source: قيس وليلى والذئب, 21 mars 2011 · Check the source
Verified attributionWhat we know
- What is documented
- The sentence is bibliographically attributed to Buthaina Al‑Eisa and associated with the book قيس وليلى والذئب published in 2011.
- What remains uncertain
- Attribution is supported by catalogs and quotation sites, but a direct scanned page or digital text from the printed edition is not provided here.
The line urges stepping out of the victim role by showing how we can turn hurt into a standing excuse. It is bibliographically linked to the 2011 book قيس وليلى والذئب by Kuwaiti writer Buthaina Al‑Eisa and reads like a compact moral observation rather than a denunciation.