Bystanders Quotes

• In the End, we will remember not the words of our enemies but the silence of our friends.

  Martin Luther King, Jr.

  Friendship, Wisdom, Kings

  "The Trumpet of Conscience". Martin Luther King, Jr.'s steeler lecture at Dexter Avenue Baptist Church in Montgomery, Alabama, November 17, 1957.

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  What hurts the victim most is not the cruelty of the oppressor, but the silence of the bystander.

  Elie Wiesel

  Hurt, Pain, Silence

  "Courage To Care - Rescuers of Jews during the Holocaust" by Carol Rittner and Sandra Meyers, NYU Press, (p. 2), 1986.

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• Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter.

  Martin Luther King, Jr.

  Inspirational, Life, Motivational

  "Biography / Personal Quotes". www.imdb.com.

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• 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.

  Elie Wiesel

  Peace, History, Remembrance

  Elie Wiesel (2011). “From the Kingdom of Memory: Reminiscences”, p.170, Schocken

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• There are no innocent bystanders.

  William S. Burroughs

  Innocent

  William S. Burroughs (1973). “Exterminator!: A novel”, Viking Pr

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  The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.

  Edmund Burke

  Inspirational, Wisdom, Witty

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• Most evil in the world is only partly because of an evil person. Most of it is because of the complicity of bystanders.

  Tim Kaine

  Evil, World, Complicity

  Source: www.cosmopolitan.com

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• It is very tempting to take the side of the perpetrator. All the perpetrator asks is that the bystander do nothing. He appeals to the universal desire to see, hear, and speak no evil. The victim, on the contrary, asks the bystander to share the burden of pain. The victim demands action, engagement, and remembering.

  Judith Lewis Herman

  Pain, Speak No Evil, Desire

  Judith Lewis Herman (1997). “Trauma and Recovery”, p.7, Basic Books

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• Silence encourages the tormentor, never the tormented.

  Elie Wiesel

  Holocaust, Remembrance, Silence

  Nobel Peace Prize acceptance speech, Oslo, Norway, 11 Dec. 1986

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• Animals used to provide a lowlife way to kill and get away with it, as they do still, but, more intriguingly, for some people they are an aperture through which wounds drain. The scapegoat of olden times, driven off for the bystanders sins, has become a tender thing, a running injury. There, running away is me: hurt it and you are hurting me.

  Edward Hoagland

  Running, Hurt, Animal

  Edward Hoagland (1995). “The Tugman's Passage”

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• The measure of a civilization is in the courage, not of its soldiers, but of its bystanders.

  Jack McDevitt

  Civilization, Soldier

  Jack McDevitt (2004). “A Talent For War”, p.194, Penguin

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  Take sides. Neutrality helps the oppressor, never the victim.

  Elie Wiesel

  Remembrance, Silence, Holocaust

  Nobel Peace Prize acceptance speech, Oslo, Norway, 11 Dec. 1986

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• The future is in our hands. We are not hapless bystanders. We can influence whether we have a planet of peace, social justice, equity, and growth or a planet of unbridgeable differences between peoples, wasted resources, corruption, and terror.

  James Wolfensohn

  Past, Hands, Differences

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• There are moments in our lives when we summon the courage to make choices that go against reason, against common sense and the wise counsel of people we trust. But we lean forward nonetheless because, despite all risks and rational argument, we believe that the path we are choosing is right and best thing to do. We refuse to be bystanders, even if we do not know exactly where our actions will lead.

  Howard Schultz

  Wise, Believe, People

  Howard Schultz, Joanne Gordon (2012). “Onward: How Starbucks Fought for Its Life without Losing Its Soul”, p.7, Rodale

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• If I sit next to a madman as he drives a car into a group of innocent bystanders, I can't, as a Christian, simply wait for the catastrophe, then comfort the wounded and bury the dead. I must try to wrestle the steering wheel out of the hands of the driver.

  Dietrich Bonhoeffer

  Christian, Hands, Car

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• Like secondhand smoke, the leakage of emotions can make a bystander an innocent casualty of someone else's toxic state.

  Daniel Goleman

  Toxic, Emotion, Innocent

  Daniel Goleman (2011). “Social Intelligence: The New Science of Human Relationships”, p.14, Random House

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• There are no bystanders in life [...] Our humanity makes us each a part of something greater than ourselves.

  Sonia Sotomayor

  Humanity, Greater

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• I come from a people who gave the Ten Commandments to the world. Time has come to strenghten them by three additional ones, which we ought to adopt and commit ourselves to: thou shall not be a perpetrator; thou shall not be a victim; and thou shall never, but never, be a bystander.

  Yehuda Bauer

  Inspirational, Time, People

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• There are no innocent bystanders ... what are they doing there in the first place?

  William S. Burroughs

  Firsts, Innocent

  "'In the Shadows' ('Gali Guliyan'): Film Review" by eborah Young, www.hollywoodreporter.com. October 23, 2017.

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• It is not open to the cool bystander . . . to set himself up as an impartial judge of events which would never have occurred had he outstretched a helping hand in time.

  Winston Churchill

  Time, Hands, Judging

  Sir Winston Churchill (1954). “Sir Winston Churchill: a self-portrait”

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• The torments of martyrdom are probably most keenly felt by the bystanders.

  Ralph Waldo Emerson

  Martyr, Torment, Felt

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• Gun control? We need bullet control! I think every bullet should cost 5,000 dollars. Because if a bullet cost five thousand dollar, we wouldn't have any innocent bystanders.

  Chris Rock

  Funny, Humor, Gun

  "Accidental Gun Control: Bullets Get Expensive". www.npr.org. May 21, 2008.

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• A person seldom falls sick but the bystanders are animated with a faint hope that he will die.

  Ralph Waldo Emerson

  Fall, Sick, Animated

  1860 The Conduct of Life,'Considerations by the Way'.

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• One of the ill effects of cruelty is that it makes the bystanders cruel.

  Sir Fowell Buxton, 1st Baronet

  Animal, Cruelty, Ill

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• The horror of the Holocaust is not that it deviated from human norms; the horror is that it didn't. What happened may happen again, to others not necessarily Jews, perpetrated by others, not necessarily Germans. We are all possible victims, possible perpetrators, possible bystanders.

  Yehuda Bauer

  Holocaust, May, Horror

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