Golda Meir Quotations

I must govern the clock, not be governed by it.

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.

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.

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

The dog that trots about finds a bone.

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

You'll never find a better sparring partner than adversity.

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

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 have always said that in our war with the Arabs we had a secret weapon - no alternative.

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!

Ability hits the mark where presumption overshoots and diffidence falls short.

Whether women are better than men I cannot say - but I can say they are certainly no worse.

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

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

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.

To be successful, a woman has to be much better at her job than a man.

It is true we have won all our wars, but we have paid for them. We don't want victories anymore.

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.

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.

The Soviet government is the most realistic regime in the world - no ideals.

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.

Glorious bouquets and storms of applause are the trimmings which every artist naturally enjoys.

We Jews have a secret weapon in our struggle with the Arabs; we have no place to go.

I never did anything alone. Whatever was accomplished in this country was accomplished collectively.

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.

We don't thrive on military acts. We do them because we have to, and thank God we are efficient.

As President Nixon says, presidents can do almost anything, and President Nixon has done many things that nobody would have thought of doing.

The public history of modern art is the story of conventional people not knowing what they are dealing with.

Fashion is an imposition, a reign on freedom.

I don't know why you use a fancy French word like detente when there's a good English phrase for it - cold war.

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.

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.

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.

Women's Liberation is just a lot of foolishness. It's the men who are discriminated against. They can't bear children. And no one's likely to do anything about that.

Women's Liberation is just a lot of foolishness

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.

We will have peace with the Arabs when they love their children more than they hate us

Don't be so humble, you're not that great.

It's not an obsession, it's a devotion. My promise to her is to do this to the best of my ability. I told her, 'I will take care of you, I will honor you.'

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 a dreadful thing to see the dead city. Next to the port I found children, women, the old, waiting for a way to leave. I entered the houses, there were houses where the coffee and pita bread were left on the table, and I could not avoid [thinking] that this, indeed, had been the picture in many Jewish towns [i.e., in Europe, during World War II]'.

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

The deserts of the Middle East are in need of water, not bombers.

At work, you think of the children you have left at home. At home, you think of the work you've left unfinished. Such a struggle is unleashed within yourself. Your heart is rent.

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

How can I explain the difference to me between America and Russia?... the America I've known is a place where men on horseback escort union marchers, the Russia I've known is a place where men on horseback slaughter young Socialists and Jews.

America is a great country. It has many shortcomings, many social inequalities, and it's tragic that the problem of the blacks wasn't solved fifty or even a hundred years ago, but it's still a great country, a country full of opportunities, of freedom! Does it seem nothing to you to be able to say what you like, even against the government, the Establishment?

Being seventy is not a sin. It's not a joy, either.

I'm sure that someday children in schools will study the history of the men who made war as you study an absurdity. They'll be shocked, just as today we're shocked with cannibalism.

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

There is no such thing as a Palestinian.

You can't improve on saying nothing.

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

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

We don't want wars even when we win.

Can we today measure devotion to husband and children by our indifference to everything else?

Moses dragged us through the desert to the one place in the Middle East where there is no oil.

We can forgive you for killing our children, but we can never forgive you for making us kill your children.

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.

We say peace and the echo comes back from the other side, war. We dont want wars even when we win.

Every civilization finds it necessary to negotiate compromises with its own values.

... from Russia I didn't bring out a single happy memory, only sad, tragic ones. The nightmare of pogroms, the brutality of Cossacks charging young Socialists, fear, shrieks of terror ...

...I'm a slave to this leaf in a diary that lists what I must do, what I must say, every half hour.

the modern woman asks herself: Is there something wrong with me if my children don't fill up my life?

Men are committing the rapes. Let them be put under curfew.

Show me a sensible person who likes himself or herself! I know myself too well to like what I see. I know but too well that I'm not what I'd like to be.

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.

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!

You can get used to anything if you have to, even feeling perpetually guilty.

But the individual was not a tool for something. He was the maker of tools. He was the one who must build. Even for the best purpose it is criminal to turn an individual into simply a means for some ultimate end. A society in which the dignity of the individual is destroyed cannot hope to be a decent society.

We only want that which is given naturally to all peoples of the world, to be masters of our own fate, not of others, and in cooperation and friendship with others.

It isnt enough to believe in something; you have to have the stamina to meet obstacles and overcome them, to struggle.

I have given instructions that I be informed everytime one of our soldiers is killed, even if it is in themiddle of the night. When President Nasser leavesinstructions that he is to be awakened in the middleof the night if an Egyptian soldier is killed, there willbe peace.

The only alternative to war is peace and the only road to peace is negotiations.

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.

Anybody who believes in something without reservation believes that this thing is right and should be, has the stamina to meet obstacles and overcome them.

How can we return the occupied territories? There is nobody to return them to.

Once in a Cabinet we had to deal with the fact that there had been an outbreak of assaults on women at night. One minister suggested a curfew; women should stay home after dark. I said, 'But it's the men who are attacking the women. If there's to be a curfew, let the men stay home, not the women.

Zionism and pessimism are not compatible.

I don't want to have a bad influence on anybody, but there's no point in my giving up cigarettes now. I won't die young.

Israel itself is the strongest guarantee against another Holocaust.

The only way to eliminate war is to love our children more than we hate our enemies.

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

There will be peace in the Middle East only when the Arabs love their children more than they hate Israel.

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.

Those that perished in Hitler's gas chambers were the last Jews to die without standing up to defend themselves.

If we have to have a choice between being dead and pitied, and being alive with a bad image, we'd rather be alive and have the bad image.

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.

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.

It isn't really important to decide when you are very young just exactly what you want to become when you grow up. It is much more important to decide on the way you want to live. If you are going to be honest with yourself and honest with your friends, if you are going to get involved in causes which are good for others, not only for yourselves, then it seems to me that that is sufficient, and maybe what you will be is only a matter of chance.

Don't be humble... you're not that great.

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

The world hates a Jew who hits back. The world loves us only when we are to be pitied.

There is no such thing as a Palestinian people... It is not as if we came and threw them out and took their country. They didn't exist.

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.

We can forgive the Arabs for killing our children. We cannot forgive them for forcing us to kill their children. We will only have peace with the Arabs when they love their children more than they hate us.

By the way, did you ever realize that if Moses would have turned right instead of left, we'd have had the oil, the Arabs would have had the sand?

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.