Golda Meir Quotes - Page 2

This country exists as the fulfillment of a promise made by God Himself. It would be ridiculous to ask it to account for its legitimacy.

My dear, old age is like an airplane flying in a storm. Once you're in it there's nothing you can do. You can't stop a plane, you can't stop a storm, you can't stop time. So you might as well take it easy, with wisdom.

One of the first sights that shocked me, when I came to Israel in 1921, was an Arab turning over a field with a very primitive plow; pulling the plow were an ox and a woman. Now, if it means that we have destroyed this romantic picture by bringing in tractors, combines, and threshing machines, this is true: we have.

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.

It is not only a matter, I believe, of religious observance and practice. To me, being Jewish means and has always meant being proud to be part of a people that has maintained its distinct identity for more than 2,000 years, with all the pain and torment that has been inflicted upon it.

A leader who doesn't hesitate before he sends his nation into battle is not fit to be a leader.

You can't improve on saying nothing.

It is not a sin to be seventy but it is also no joke.

It is always much easier, I have discovered, to make people cry or gasp than to make them think.

Those who don't know how to weep with their whole heart, don't know how to laugh either.

Don't become cynical. Don't give up hope. Don't believe that everything is judged only by expediency. There is idealism in this world. There is human brotherhood.

How does it feel to be a woman minister? I don't know; I've never been a man minister.

To be or not to be is not a question of compromise. Either you be or you don't be.

A story once went the rounds of Israel to the effect that Ben-Gurion described me as 'the only man' in his cabinet. What amused me about is that he (or whoever invented the story) thought that this was the greatest compliment that could be paid to a woman. I very much doubt that any man would have been flattered if I had said about him that he was the only woman in the government!

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.

Old age is like a plane flying through a storm. Once you're aboard, there's nothing you can do.

Arab sovereignty in Jerusalem just cannot be. This city will not be divided - not half and half, not 60-40, not 75-25, nothing.

I want to say to you, friends, that the Jewish community in Palestine is going to fight to the very end. If we have arms to fight with, we will fight with those, and if not, we will fight with stones in our hands.

There is only one thing I hope to see before I die, and that is that my people should not need expressions of sympathy anymore.

There was no such thing as Palestinians, they never existed.

We don't want wars even when we win.

We do not rejoice in victories. We rejoice when a new kind of cotton is grown and when strawberries bloom in Israel.

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.

If only political leaders would allow themselves to feel, as well as to think, the world might be a happier place.

Any one who speaks in favor of bringing the Arab refugees back must also say how he expects to take the responsibility for it, if he is interested in the state of Israel. It is better that things are stated clearly and plainly: We shall not let this happen.