The Choice / The Librarian of Auschwitz / The Child of Auschwitz Quotes

“All your ecstasy in life is going to come from the inside”
― Edith Eger, The Choice / The Librarian of Auschwitz / The Child of Auschwitz

“It’s a dangerous game to play what-if with the past.”
― Edith Eger, The Choice / The Librarian of Auschwitz / The Child of Auschwitz

“To put all those millions of square kilometers of seas, forests, all of Earth's mountain ranges, all the rivers, all the cities and countries into such a tiny space was a miracle that only a book could achieve.”
― Antonio Iturbe, The Choice / The Librarian of Auschwitz / The Child of Auschwitz

“Únicamente después de muchos años llegue a entender que huir no cura el dolor. Lo empeora.”
― Edith Eger, The Choice / The Librarian of Auschwitz / The Child of Auschwitz

“…después de muchos años llegue a entender que huir no cura el dolor. Lo empeora.”
― Edith Eger, The Choice / The Librarian of Auschwitz / The Child of Auschwitz

“Nuestro futuro es la suma de una ecuación que es parte intención y parte circunstancia. Y nuestras intenciones pueden cambiar. O desintegrarse.”
― Edith Eger, The Choice / The Librarian of Auschwitz / The Child of Auschwitz

“La negación es nuestro escudo. Todavía no sabemos qué perpetuamos el daño al negar el pasado, al mantener nuestra conspiración de silencio. Estamos convencidos de que cuanto más encerremos el pasado, más seguros y felices nos sentiremos.”
― Edith Eger, The Choice / The Librarian of Auschwitz / The Child of Auschwitz

“Y llorar con ellas parece un desprecio al milagro de estar juntas.”
― Edith Eger, The Choice / The Librarian of Auschwitz / The Child of Auschwitz

“No es mi pérdida lo único que duele. Es la forma en que influye en el futuro. La forma en que se perpetúa.”
― Edith Eger, The Choice / The Librarian of Auschwitz / The Child of Auschwitz

“Tal vez es hora de construir nuestras vidas, no donde estaban, sino de nuevo.”
― Edith Eger, The Choice / The Librarian of Auschwitz / The Child of Auschwitz

“Mis hermanas y yo vivimos en un limbo permanente, entre mirar atrás y avanzar.”
― Edith Eger, The Choice / The Librarian of Auschwitz / The Child of Auschwitz

“Es la primera vez que veo que podemos decidir: podemos prestar atención a lo que hemos perdido o prestar atención a lo que todavía tenemos”.”
― Edith Eger, The Choice / The Librarian of Auschwitz / The Child of Auschwitz

“¿Por qué cuesta tanto llenar la vida de vida?”
― Edith Eger, The Choice / The Librarian of Auschwitz / The Child of Auschwitz

“Expresión es lo contrario a represión”
― Edith Eger, The Choice / The Librarian of Auschwitz / The Child of Auschwitz

“There are an infinite number of things you could have done differently in your life. Those choices are done, the past is gone, nothing can change that.”
― Edith Eger, The Choice / The Librarian of Auschwitz / The Child of Auschwitz

“Before you say or do something, ask, Is it kind? Is it important? Does it help?”
― Edith Eger, The Choice / The Librarian of Auschwitz / The Child of Auschwitz

“… feelings, no matter how powerful, aren’t fatal. And they are temporary. Suppressing the feelings only makes it harder to let them go. Expression is the opposite of depression.”
― Edith Eger, The Choice / The Librarian of Auschwitz / The Child of Auschwitz

“When we buried my child, you told me two things that I’ve never forgotten. You said, ‘Life will be good again.’ And you said, ‘If you can survive this, you can survive anything.’ I’ve said those phrases to myself over and over.”
― Edith Eger, The Choice / The Librarian of Auschwitz / The Child of Auschwitz

“It’s important to assign blame to the perpetrators. Nothing is gained if we close our eyes to wrong, if we give someone a pass, if we dismiss accountability. But as my fellow survivors taught me, you can live to avenge the past, or you can live to enrich the present. You can live in the prison of the past, or you can let the past be the springboard that helps you reach the life you want now.”
― Edith Eger, The Choice / The Librarian of Auschwitz / The Child of Auschwitz

“… to be free is to live in the present. If we are stuck in the past, saying, ‘If only I had gone there instead of here,’ or ‘If only I had married someone else,’ we are living in a prison of our own making. Likewise. if we spend our time in the future, saying, ‘I won’t be happy until I graduate,’ or ‘I won’t be happy until I find the right person.’ The only place where we can exercise our freedom of choice is in the present.”
― Edith Eger, The Choice / The Librarian of Auschwitz / The Child of Auschwitz

“… running away doesn’t heal pain. It makes the pain worse.”
― Edith Eger, The Choice / The Librarian of Auschwitz / The Child of Auschwitz

“I was having a flashback, that the unnerving physical sensations—racing heart, sweaty palms, narrowing vision—I experienced that day (and that I will continue to experience many times in my life, even now, in my late eighties) are automatic responses to trauma. This is why I now object to pathologizing post-traumatic stress by calling it a disorder. It’s not a disordered reaction to trauma—it’s a common and natural one. But I wish I had known that I wasn’t a damaged person, that I was suffering the fallout of an interrupted life.”
― Edith Eger, The Choice / The Librarian of Auschwitz / The Child of Auschwitz