Elie Wiesel on hope, compassion, and the power of youth at WE Day

00:10:53
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=keLT6bp7wok

Resumen

TLDRIn this speech, the speaker, a teacher and writer from Boston University, reflects on the essence of life, learning, and human connection. They emphasize the importance of living life through remarkable moments, as every encounter, such as discovering literature or experiencing joy, adds value. The speaker underscores the concept of freedom, which should not infringe upon others' liberties, and denounces racism as a fundamentally negative force in society. They passionately argue against indifference, stating it is the true opposite of love, beauty, and life itself. Additionally, they advocate for higher thinking and deeper feeling, encouraging students to cherish and create hope rather than despair. Through their teachings and writings, the speaker strives to instill an enduring legacy of compassion, education, and mindfulness in the students' journey through life.

Para llevar

  • 📚 Life is built on moments—embrace them all.
  • 🔓 Freedom shouldn't come at the cost of others.
  • 🚫 Racism has no place in culture.
  • 🤝 Indifference is the true opposite of love and beauty.
  • 🤔 Think higher and feel deeper in life.
  • 📖 Storytelling bridges time and connects us.
  • 🙌 Being in a classroom should oppose indifference.
  • 🔮 Hope mustn't result from another's despair.
  • 👥 Classmates today could be future achievers.
  • 💬 Value lessons learned together and shared experiences.

Cronología

  • 00:00:00 - 00:05:00

    The speaker reflects on his identity as both a teacher and a writer, emphasizing that his passion for learning has been a lifelong pursuit. He acknowledges that life is composed of moments that bring about significant changes, citing examples such as discovering literature for the first time or experiencing the first sign of love. He discusses the importance of freedom, emphasizing that it should never be at the expense of others and condemning racism as an unacceptable aspect of culture.

  • 00:05:00 - 00:10:53

    The speaker underscores the significance of indifference, stating that it is the opposite of love, knowledge, beauty, and life itself. He encourages the audience to see others not as enemies but as companions, stressing that human beings are irreplaceable. Life is sacred, and nothing justifies its loss. He concludes with lessons of thinking higher and feeling deeper, urging the audience to be a source of hope and joy for others while avoiding becoming a cause of despair. The speaker leaves the audience with a sense of promise and mutual hope.

Mapa mental

Mind Map

Preguntas frecuentes

  • Who is the speaker?

    The speaker is a teacher and writer, possibly from Boston University.

  • What is the main theme of the speech?

    The main themes are learning, freedom, racism, indifference, and hope.

  • What does the speaker say about indifference?

    Indifference is not an option, and it is the opposite of love, knowledge, beauty, and life.

  • How does the speaker describe the moments of life?

    Life is made up of moments, including great, dark, sad, triumphant moments that are significant.

  • What is the speaker's view on racism?

    Racism is ugly, stupid, and should never be an option for culture.

  • What should we remember according to the speaker?

    Think higher and feel deeper in life endeavors.

  • What is the speaker's message on hope?

    Hope should not come at the expense of someone else's despair.

  • How does the speaker feel about education?

    Education should be about humanity and not be indifferent.

  • Why does the speaker value small classes?

    The speaker values small classes for their intimacy and better learning environment.

  • What role does storytelling play in the speech?

    Storytelling inspires and connects us across time and space.

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Subtítulos
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Desplazamiento automático:
  • 00:00:02
    [Applause]
  • 00:00:05
    my young friends
  • 00:00:11
    in the next 10 minutes i'm given 10
  • 00:00:15
    minutes
  • 00:00:17
    already i will try and give you a few
  • 00:00:21
    words
  • 00:00:23
    that would simply reflect what i have
  • 00:00:27
    tried to do
  • 00:00:28
    with so many years of my life
  • 00:00:33
    first of all remember that i am a
  • 00:00:35
    teacher
  • 00:00:36
    and a writer the writer in me is a
  • 00:00:39
    teacher
  • 00:00:40
    the teacher in me is a writer as a
  • 00:00:43
    writer
  • 00:00:44
    i learn and as a teacher i try to teach
  • 00:00:48
    but my passion for learning is what
  • 00:00:51
    sustained me for many decades i still
  • 00:00:55
    am learning and i confess to you
  • 00:00:59
    you may be disappointed but in my
  • 00:01:01
    university where i teach boston
  • 00:01:03
    university
  • 00:01:04
    i love small classes
  • 00:01:08
    you are not a small class
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    but as you heard from heather
  • 00:01:16
    that moments
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    life remember that life is not made
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    of years but of moments
  • 00:01:26
    great moments dark moments sad moments
  • 00:01:30
    triumphant moments the first time you
  • 00:01:33
    meet each other
  • 00:01:35
    the first time you discover shakespeare
  • 00:01:38
    or plato the first time you are taken by
  • 00:01:42
    a story
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    written by someone that you never met
  • 00:01:45
    and that story
  • 00:01:46
    takes you far away in time and in space
  • 00:01:49
    and in life but for this moment which is
  • 00:01:53
    ours
  • 00:01:54
    now i envy you to begin
  • 00:01:58
    is a mystery to me that all of a sudden
  • 00:02:02
    life changes because of that beginning
  • 00:02:05
    the first time you read the novel the
  • 00:02:08
    first time you have a teacher that
  • 00:02:09
    inspires you the first time you
  • 00:02:12
    experience
  • 00:02:13
    joy through joy simply by meeting
  • 00:02:16
    a fellow student the first time you feel
  • 00:02:20
    the first
  • 00:02:21
    beginning the first sign of love
  • 00:02:25
    and the first time you acquire knowledge
  • 00:02:28
    and you know that that knowledge is
  • 00:02:31
    something that is important in life
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    as it was in mind look
  • 00:02:39
    what have i learned small things first
  • 00:02:42
    of all
  • 00:02:44
    you say free the children
  • 00:02:47
    the emphasis is on free freedom
  • 00:02:51
    are you free probably
  • 00:02:54
    to a limit but remember your freedom
  • 00:02:58
    should never be at the expense of
  • 00:03:00
    someone who has no freedom
  • 00:03:03
    remember you are not free simply
  • 00:03:08
    to accept to accept racism
  • 00:03:12
    racism is ugly racism is stupid
  • 00:03:17
    racism is absurd especially racism
  • 00:03:21
    is never an option for culture
  • 00:03:36
    one day you may open one of my books
  • 00:03:39
    and you will see that although i have
  • 00:03:41
    read more than 50 books
  • 00:03:43
    but actually what heather said is true
  • 00:03:45
    night is the first
  • 00:03:48
    and if you begin with night you will see
  • 00:03:50
    that when i was your age
  • 00:03:52
    the world was a different world at that
  • 00:03:56
    time
  • 00:03:57
    totalitarian power existed in the world
  • 00:04:01
    on one hand communism with its dark
  • 00:04:04
    laboratories
  • 00:04:05
    of death and on the other hand
  • 00:04:09
    narcissism which is factories of death
  • 00:04:12
    and therefore when you will have read it
  • 00:04:15
    you will ask yourselves
  • 00:04:16
    how did i the person who speaks to you
  • 00:04:20
    managed not to survive that was an
  • 00:04:22
    accident i have never
  • 00:04:24
    done anything to survive it is simply
  • 00:04:27
    if you are religious you would say by
  • 00:04:29
    miracle or
  • 00:04:30
    by chance but the fact is how could one
  • 00:04:34
    survive
  • 00:04:35
    and speak about humanity and speak about
  • 00:04:37
    faith
  • 00:04:38
    faith in culture faith and civilization
  • 00:04:42
    now you heard heather again quoting me
  • 00:04:44
    that i am against indifference
  • 00:04:47
    you cannot enter a classroom with
  • 00:04:50
    indifference you are in your classrooms
  • 00:04:55
    with your friends future friends and
  • 00:04:57
    what do you learn
  • 00:04:59
    not only not only that truth can never
  • 00:05:02
    be
  • 00:05:03
    an abstraction but it must be part of a
  • 00:05:07
    human being
  • 00:05:09
    you look around you look at the neighbor
  • 00:05:12
    sitting next to you that young boy or
  • 00:05:15
    girl
  • 00:05:15
    may be a future nobel prize winner
  • 00:05:19
    who else can tell you that but me
  • 00:05:22
    it's possible why not
  • 00:05:25
    it's all something that depends not on
  • 00:05:28
    destiny but on yourself
  • 00:05:30
    it's not that you would want to win a
  • 00:05:32
    prize but you will do
  • 00:05:34
    so many things in physics or in medicine
  • 00:05:37
    for the welfare of humanity
  • 00:05:39
    that you will get such a price but even
  • 00:05:42
    if you don't get it
  • 00:05:44
    the fact that you are here to support
  • 00:05:48
    and to help and to love and to assist
  • 00:05:51
    and to explore on a journey
  • 00:05:55
    with a person another person boy or girl
  • 00:05:58
    that's already a reward in itself
  • 00:06:02
    but what will you remember you will
  • 00:06:04
    remember therefore that indifference
  • 00:06:07
    is not an option just as racism is not
  • 00:06:11
    just as evil is not i said
  • 00:06:15
    that the opposite of love is not hate
  • 00:06:17
    but indifference but that is true
  • 00:06:19
    also of education the opposite
  • 00:06:23
    of knowledge is not ignorance but
  • 00:06:26
    indifference the opposite of
  • 00:06:28
    beauty is not ugliness but indifference
  • 00:06:31
    the opposite of life is not death but
  • 00:06:34
    indifference to life and death
  • 00:06:37
    so there are so many things that you are
  • 00:06:38
    learning from each other
  • 00:06:40
    with each other what i have to overcome
  • 00:06:45
    is to see in the other industry in the
  • 00:06:48
    passerby
  • 00:06:50
    not an enemy but a fellow
  • 00:06:53
    sojourner not an enemy
  • 00:06:57
    but a friend
  • 00:07:01
    a companion someone whose hand
  • 00:07:06
    when it is open is a gift in itself
  • 00:07:11
    you will learn that nothing
  • 00:07:14
    in the world justifies
  • 00:07:18
    death we are told
  • 00:07:21
    [Applause]
  • 00:07:29
    we are told that
  • 00:07:32
    death is a blemish on creation
  • 00:07:36
    it is surely true but remember
  • 00:07:40
    that life is sacred and therefore life
  • 00:07:44
    cannot be replaced functions
  • 00:07:48
    can be replaced but not life in my town
  • 00:07:52
    when they came the enemy came and we
  • 00:07:55
    said
  • 00:07:56
    to each other it's impossible they will
  • 00:07:58
    not take all of us away
  • 00:08:00
    since so many doctors are in my town so
  • 00:08:02
    many pharmacists
  • 00:08:04
    so many cobblers how can they live
  • 00:08:06
    without us and the enemy said
  • 00:08:08
    everyone is replaceable nonsense human
  • 00:08:11
    beings are not replaceable
  • 00:08:15
    [Applause]
  • 00:08:23
    and so a few words i will simply give
  • 00:08:27
    you
  • 00:08:28
    as the lesson i have learned
  • 00:08:32
    when you will have read maybe some of my
  • 00:08:35
    books
  • 00:08:37
    or come to my school and learned with me
  • 00:08:41
    what will remain what i want
  • 00:08:45
    to remain in you and with you
  • 00:08:48
    is simply that whatever you will do in
  • 00:08:52
    life
  • 00:08:55
    whatever endeavor you will undertake
  • 00:08:58
    and wherever the road the destiny will
  • 00:09:01
    take you
  • 00:09:02
    remember these few words
  • 00:09:05
    always think higher
  • 00:09:09
    and feel deeper think higher meaning
  • 00:09:13
    that simple things have their own beauty
  • 00:09:17
    and feel deeper meaning feel deeper
  • 00:09:19
    about one another when i
  • 00:09:22
    see a child the sadness of that child
  • 00:09:26
    darkens my universe and the smile of
  • 00:09:30
    their child
  • 00:09:31
    gives me more hope than i can get from
  • 00:09:34
    myself
  • 00:09:36
    but then this is the mystery of hope
  • 00:09:39
    it is like peace it is not gift to one
  • 00:09:43
    another god's gift
  • 00:09:44
    but the gift that one give to one
  • 00:09:46
    another
  • 00:09:48
    so i offer you the idea that you will
  • 00:09:51
    find of course despair
  • 00:09:53
    in books it's okay because you will
  • 00:09:56
    overcome them you will find other books
  • 00:09:58
    who will
  • 00:09:59
    surmount the despair but never
  • 00:10:02
    accept to be a despair to someone else
  • 00:10:06
    that means let not your hope
  • 00:10:10
    be at the expense of another person's
  • 00:10:13
    despair if i am responsible for your
  • 00:10:17
    despair
  • 00:10:19
    i am guilty and unworthy
  • 00:10:22
    i want you to remember these moments
  • 00:10:24
    that we spend together today
  • 00:10:27
    as moments of possible and necessary joy
  • 00:10:31
    but above all of extraordinary moments
  • 00:10:34
    of promise
  • 00:10:36
    of an extraordinary promise of hope
  • 00:10:40
    we are each other's hope
  • 00:10:43
    thank you
  • 00:10:48
    [Applause]
Etiquetas
  • learning
  • freedom
  • racism
  • indifference
  • hope
  • education
  • humanity
  • moments
  • storytelling
  • life