Golda Meir Quotes

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

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.

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.

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 neighbors think of him. Being a Jew is no problem here.

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.

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 must govern the clock, not be governed by it.

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

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.

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 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.