A leader who doesn't hesitate before he sends his nation
into battle is not fit to be a leader.
Ability hits
the mark where presumption overshoots and diffidence falls short.
Above all, this
country is our own. Nobody has to get up in the morning and worry what his
neighbours think of him. Being a Jew is no problem here.
Arab
sovereignty in Jerusalem just cannot be. This city will not be divided-not half
and half, not 60-40, not 75-25, nothing.
As President
Nixon says, presidents can do almost anything, and President Nixon has done many
things that nobody would have thought of doing.
Authority
poisons everybody who takes authority on himself.
Being
seventy is not a sin.
Don't be
humble... you're not that great.
Fashion is an
imposition, a reign on freedom.
Glorious
bouquets and storms of applause are the trimmings, which every artist naturally
enjoys.
I can honestly
say that I was never affected by the question of the success of an undertaking.
If I felt it was the right thing to do, I was for it regardless of the possible
outcome.
I don't know
why you use a fancy French word like detente when there's a good English phrase
for it-cold war.
I have given
instructions that I be informed every time one of our soldiers is killed, even
if it is in the middle of the night. When President Nasser leaves instructions
that he is to be awakened in the middle of the night if an Egyptian soldier is
killed, there will be peace.
I must govern
the clock, not be governed by it.
I never did
anything alone. Whatever was accomplished in this country was accomplished
collectively.
It is true we
have won all our wars, but we have paid for them. We don't want victories
anymore.
It's no
accident many accuse me of conducting public affairs with my heart instead of my
head. Well, what if I do? Those who don't know how to weep with their whole
heart don't know how to laugh either.
Let me tell you
something that we Israelis have against Moses. He took us 40 years through the
desert in order to bring us to the one spot in the Middle East that has no oil!
Men who have
reached and passed forty-five, have a look as if waiting for the secret of the
other world, and as if they were perfectly sure of having found out the secret
of this.
My delegation
cannot refrain from speaking on this question-we who have such an intimate
knowledge of boxcars and of deportations to unknown destinations that we cannot
be silent.
Not till the
fire is dying in the grate, Look we for any kinship with the stars. Oh, wisdom
never comes when it is gold, And the great price we paid for it full worth: We
have it only when we are half earth. Little avails that coinage to the old!
Old age is like
a plane flying through a storm. Once you're aboard, there's nothing you can do.
One cannot and
must not try to erase the past merely because it does not fit the present.
Pessimism is a
luxury that a Jew can never allow himself.
The dog that
trots about finds a bone.
The Egyptians
could run to Egypt, the Syrians into Syria. The only place we could run was into
the sea, and before we did that we might as well fight.
The man of the
Cross, who heads the church whose symbol is the Cross, under which Jews were
killed for generations. I could not escape the feeling. It stuck with me. And he
felt it-that a Jewess was sitting opposite him.
The public
history of modern art is the story of conventional people not knowing what they
are dealing with.
The Soviet
government is the most realistic regime in the world - no ideals.
There can be no
doubt that the average man blames much more than he praises. His instinct is to
blame. If he is satisfied he says nothing; if he is not, he most illogically
kicks up a row.
There's no
difference between one's killing and making decisions that will send others to
kill. It's exactly the same thing, or even worse.
Those who don't
know how to weep with their whole heart, don't know how to laugh either.
To be or not to
be is not a question of compromise. Either you be or you don't be.
To be
successful, a woman has to be much better at her job than a man.
Trust yourself.
Create the kind of self that you will be happy to live with all your life. Make
the most of yourself by fanning the tiny, inner sparks of possibility into
flames of achievement.
We do not
rejoice in victories. We rejoice when a new kind of cotton is grown and when
strawberries bloom in Israel.
We don't thrive
on military acts. We do them because we have to, and thank God we are efficient.
We have always
said that in our war with the Arabs we had a secret weapon - no alternative.
What do you
gain, Soviet Union, from this miserable policy? Where is your decency? Would it
be a disgrace for you to give up this battle?
Whether women
are better than men I cannot say - but I can say they are certainly no worse.
Women's
liberation is just a lot of foolishness. It's men who are discriminated against.
They can't bear children. And no one is likely to do anything about that.
You'll never
find a better sparring partner than adversity.
