Analysis Of Memory, Hope, And Despair, By Elie Weisel

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During his Nobel Peace Prize speech, “Memory, Hope, and Despair”, Elie Weisel said, “The opposite of the past is not the future but the absence of future; the opposite of the future is not the past but the absence of past. The loss of one is equivalent to the sacrifice of the other.” This quote really captures how I feel about the past; without it, one cannot have a future, which is the reason I find my memories more important than my dreams. In that same speech, Elie Weisel also said, “Without memory, our existence would be barren and opaque.” I believe this statement to be true as memories, particularly the merry and joyful ones, are something people, especially myself, frequently enjoy looking back upon. My favorite memories are

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