Witness Quotes

“For the dead and the living, we must bear witness.”
― elie wiesel

“Have you no wish for others to be saved? Then you're not saved yourself, be sure of that!”
― Charles Spurgeon

“Never judge someone's character based on the words of another. Instead, study the motives behind the words of the person casting the bad judgment. An honest woman can sell tangerines all day and remain a good person until she dies, but there will always be naysayers who will try to convince you otherwise. Perhaps this woman did not give them something for free, or at a discount. Perhaps too, that she refused to stand with them when they were wrong — or just stood up for something she felt was right. And also, it could be that some bitter women are envious of her, or that she rejected the advances of some very proud men. Always trust your heart. If the Creator stood before a million men with the light of a million lamps, only a few would truly see him because truth is already alive in their hearts. Truth can only be seen by those with truth in them. He who does not have Truth in his heart, will always be blind to her.”
― Suzy Kassem, Rise Up and Salute the Sun: The Writings of Suzy Kassem

“Mr Lorry asks the witness questions:

Ever been kicked?
Might have been.
Frequently? No. Ever kicked down stairs?
Decidedly not; once received a kick at the top of a staircase, and fell down stairs of his own accord.”
― Charles Dickens, A Tale of Two Cities

“When we step outside ourselves and stop being merely subjective witnesses, we can recognize how the relentless cut and thrust of our own self-righteousness vanishes and new ground is broken for a state of independent thinking, where ”others” do matter. ("Wheeling and dealing.")”
― Erik Pevernagie

“As Emmanuel, Cardinal Suhard says, "To be a witness does not consist in engaging in propaganda, nor even in stirring people up, but in being a living mystery. It means to live in such a way that one's life would not make sense if God did not exist.”
― Madeleine L'Engle, Walking on Water: Reflections on Faith and Art

“... truth, whose mother is history, who is the rival of time, depository of deeds, witness of the past, example and lesson to the present, and warning to the future.”
― Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra, Don Quixote

“Even on the cross He did not hide Himself from sight; rather, He made all creation witness to the presence of its Maker.”
― St. Athanasius, On the Incarnation

“When sinners judge, God takes the stand.”
― Toba Beta, My Ancestor Was an Ancient Astronaut

“Suddenly summoned to witness something great and horrendous, we keep fighting not to reduce it to our own smallness.”
― John Updike

“Sometimes I feel proud of myself, not because of any success I’ve achieved, but because I’m aware of all the difficulties that I have suffered or went through.

I’m an eyewitness at all the fear, weakness, frustration, failure, depression, refraction and bad luck moments that I’ve been through alone and which affected significantly but never was able to beat me for so long.

This is why I’m proud, because I’m here now stronger that yesterday, I'm still able to stand and continue on my way, still following up my dreams, still trying my best to build better future for me and my family and I will never ever give up!”
― Shadi Kamal Kandil

“Ragamuffins are simple, direct and honest. Their speech is unaffected. They are slow to claim, "God told me..." As they make their way through the world, they bear wordless, prophetic witness.”
― Brennan Manning, The Ragamuffin Gospel

“Well, if that’s what you call being at peace, for heaven’s sake just warn me before you go to war, will you?”
― Sinclair Lewis, Babbitt

“Being a parent wasn't just about bearing a child. It was about bearing witness to its life.”
― Jodi Picoult, Handle with Care

“Being salt and light demands two things: we practice purity in the midst of a fallen world and yet we live in proximity to this fallen world. If you don't hold up both truth in tension, you invariably becomes useless and separated from the world God loves.”
― David Kinnaman, unChristian: What a New Generation Really Thinks about Christianity... and Why It Matters

“We've got this idea that there are only two options in grief: you're either going to be stuck in your pain, doomed to spend the rest of your life rocking in a corner in your basement wearing sackcloth, or you're going to triumph over grief, be transformed, and come back even better than you were before.
Just two options. On, off. Eternally broken or completely healed.
It doesn't seem to matter that nothing else in life is like that. Somehow when it comes to grief, the entire breadth of human experience goes out the window.”
― Megan Devine, It's OK That You're Not OK

“We should get into the way of appearing lively in religion, more by being lively in the service of God and our generation than by the liveliness and forwardness of our tongues, and making a business of proclaiming on the house tops with our mouths the holy and eminent acts and exercises of our own hearts. Christians that are intimate friends would talk together of their experiences and comforts in a manner better becoming Christian humility and modesty, and more to each other's profit: their tongues not running before, but rather going behind their hands and feet, after the prudent example of the blessed apostle, 2 Cor. xii. 6. Many occasions of spiritual pride would thus be cut off, and so a great door shut against the devil. A great many of the main stumbling-blocks against experimental and powerful religion would be removed, and religion would be declared and manifested in such a way that, instead of hardening spectators, and exceedingly promoting infidelity and atheism, it would, above all things, tend to convince men that there is a reality in religion, and greatly awaken them, and win them, by convincing their consciences of the importance and excellency of religion. Thus the light of professors would so shine before men, that others, seeing their good works, would glorify their Father which is in heaven.”
― Jonathan Edwards, The Religious Affections

“I would have preferred someone else to have been in charge of rescuing this story, but once again life has taught me that my role is to be a witness, not the leading actor.”
― Carlos Ruiz Zafón, The Midnight Palace

“On the concept of unity- “Thatʼs right-Jesusʼ most pressing concern before
leaving the earth was our unity. He was looking ahead, to every generation of
believer. And as he prayed, he made it clear that our witness as his body in this
fractured , messed-up, chaotic world would depend on our love for another.”
― Ed Galisewski, A Simpler Faith: Hope For Those Who Struggle With Church

“All this happened in much less time than it takes to tell, since I am trying to interpret for you into slow speech the instantaneous effect of visual impressions.”
― Joseph Conrad, Lord Jim

“Yaicha runs.

He sits down, tired,
and says to mom,
"I'm sorry you had to see that."

Inevitable that he does it.

But he doesn't really want
a witness.”
― Thalia Chaltas, Because I Am Furniture

“If the church is the body of Christ [who was disguised in servant form], why would we think the world would be able to pick us out of a crowd of other well-meaning organizations?”
― Mark Galli, Chaos and Grace: Discovering the Liberating Work of the Holy Spirit

“For his own unfathomable reasons, God chooses to disguise himself when he comes to this planet, and there have been few disguises better than the church.”
― Mark Galli, Chaos and Grace: Discovering the Liberating Work of the Holy Spirit

“But witnesses incur responsibilities, as anyone who has ever seen a traffic accident and had to go to court to testify, knows. In the new world of globally televised war crimes, the defence of 'not knowing,' or neutrality, will dissolve for everyone. To be a witness or bystander is not a value-free choice but, inadvertently, a moral position; and in this sense the 'guilt' of people who live with the memory of crimes committed by members of their families, or communities, has been unwittingly extended to everyone who watches appalling pictures on the news.”
― Erna Paris, Long Shadows: Truth, Lies and History

“Take any man you like -- unless he is the one in a hundred thousand with a mind trained to keep things straight, and not always even then -- get him excited, show him something, give him a few hours to think it over, and then ask him about it. It's dollars to doughnuts that you'll have a hard time finding any connection between what he saw and what he says he saw.”
― Dashiell Hammett, Nightmare Town: Stories

“We have a duty to witness the broad spectrum of humanity, rather than to defend our own corner of it.”
― Katherine May, Enchantment: Awakening Wonder in an Anxious Age

“Ah, the Pacific, the silent witness to Lima's relentless evolution since its founding, what are your secrets, will you ever tell us?”
― Ryan Gelpke, Peruvian Nights

“for Falasteen

the boy i adored at sixteen gifted me his keffiyeh
feeling guilty for living when others were killed
simply for existing i haven’t seen him in sixteen years
but think of him often these days his grandmother’s purse
still carrying keys to their home believing they’d return
in weeks can it even be called a key
if what it unlocked is no longer there?
we’d sneak onto mall rooftops & pretend shooting
only happened with stars! 'we have a duty of memory,'
he said, 'so they’ll kill us all until only the soil
is witness' how could i reply? i sat in my liquid silence
today there are nurseries of martyrs
they bomb babies for they fear enemies
hiding between pacifiers & tiny wrists
bomb hospitals because enemies hide in ICU bedpans
bomb schools because enemies hide in children’s bags
bomb the oldest mosques & churches because enemies
hide in rosary beads & votive candles
they bomb journalists because enemies are hiding
under their PRESS vests & helmets
bomb poets because enemies hide in pages
of peace poems the elderly are bombed
because enemies hide under their canes
the disabled are bombed because they harbour
enemies in their artificial limbs
they raze & burn all the ancient trees
because enemies make bombs from olives
they bomb water treatment plants
because enemies are now water
& so it goes: justification provided
exoneration granted business as usual
& the boy I adored has green-grey eyes
the colour of fig leaves
we don’t speak but i wish to tell him
'i’m sorry the world is a blade i’m sorry
home is blood & bones i’m sorry music
is sirens & wails i’m sorry night is infinite'
but the boy I adored has grey-green eyes
the colour of forgotten ash”
― Kamand Kojouri

“His soul stood free, a witness and a king.

01.03_006:055”
― Sri Aurobindo, Savitri: A Legend and a Symbol

“Indifferent to the sorrow and delight,
Untempted by the marvel and the call,
Immobile it beheld the flux of things,
Calm and apart supported all that is:
His spirit’s stillness helped the toiling world.

01.03_007:019”
― Sri Aurobindo, Savitri: A Legend and a Symbol