Golda Meir Quotes
Former Prime Minister of Israel
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!
To be or not to be is not a question of compromise. Either you be or you don't be.
Don't be humble... you're not that great.
One cannot and must not try to erase the past merely because it does not fit the present.
The dog that trots about finds a bone.
Whether women are better than men I cannot say - but I can say they are certainly no worse.
I must govern the clock, not be governed by it.
Those who don't know how to weep with their whole heart, don't know how to laugh either.
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.
You'll never find a better sparring partner than adversity.
Pessimism is a luxury that a Jew can never allow himself.
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.
We do not rejoice in victories. We rejoice when a new kind of cotton is grown and when strawberries bloom in Israel.
To be successful, a woman has to be much better at her job than a man.
We Jews have a secret weapon in our struggle with the Arabs; we have no place to go.
Ability hits the mark where presumption overshoots and diffidence falls short.
As President Nixon says, presidents can do almost anything, and President Nixon has done many things that nobody would have thought of doing.
Not being beautiful was the true blessing. Not being beautiful forced me to develop my inner resources. The pretty girl has a handicap to overcome.
Old age is like a plane flying through a storm. Once you're aboard, there's nothing you can do.
Fashion is an imposition, a reign on freedom.
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.
I don't know why you use a fancy French word like detente when there's a good English phrase for it - cold war.
A leader who doesn't hesitate before he sends his nation into battle is not fit to be a leader.
I never did anything alone. Whatever was accomplished in this country was accomplished collectively.
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.
Above all, this country is our own. Nobody has to get up in the morning and worry what his neighbors think of him. Being a Jew is no problem here.
We don't thrive on military acts. We do them because we have to, and thank God we are efficient.
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.
Glorious bouquets and storms of applause are the trimmings which every artist naturally enjoys.
Even paranoids have real enemies.
The Soviet government is the most realistic regime in the world - no ideals.
Authority poisons everybody who takes authority on himself.
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.
We have always said that in our war with the Arabs we had a secret weapon - no alternative.
The public history of modern art is the story of conventional people not knowing what they are dealing with.
Being seventy is not a sin.
It is true we have won all our wars, but we have paid for them. We don't want victories anymore.
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.
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.