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

In those dark times, one rose to the very heights of humanity by simply remaining human.

[Memory] is a passion no less powerful or pervasive than love. It is [the ability] to live in more than one world, to prevent the past from fading, and to call upon the future to illuminate it.

I wrote my first book, I published it in 1955, it was in Yiddish and it was called And The World Was Silent.

Tibet's a tragedy. It's an insult to human decency.

I'm not a political person, and their ambitions are not mine. They want power. I don't want power.

I don't know the real answer, my answer to anything which is essentially human relations is education. Whatever the answer is, education must be its measured component and if you try to educate with generosity not with triumphalism I think sometimes it works, especially young people, that's why I teach, I've been teaching all my life.