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

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

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.

Fashion is an imposition, a reign on freedom.

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

Zionism and pessimism are not compatible.

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

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.

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

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

Trust yourself. Create the kind of self that you will be happy to live with all your life.

One cannot and must not try to erase the past merely because it does not fit the present.

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.

You can’t improve on saying nothing.

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

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

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

If there’s a silver bullet in the battle to recapture Albany, it is the re-engagement of our citizens. This capital has become a physical metaphor for the isolation and alienation of our people.

I believe public education is the new civil rights battle and I support charter schools.

To sustain an environment suitable for man, we must fight on a thousand battlegrounds. Despite all of our wealth and knowledge, we cannot create a redwood forest, a wild river, or a gleaming seashore.

The fight isn’t over – it’s just begun. It’s time to suit up for a battle that might determine the war.

There are no fortresses that Bolsheviks cannot storm.

If any foreign minister begins to defend to the death a ‘peace conference,’ you can be sure his government has already placed its orders for new battleships and airplanes.

I do not find it easy to send the flower of our youth, our finest young men, into battle.

The battles that count aren’t the ones for gold medals. The struggles within yourself – the invisible, inevitable battles inside all of us – that’s where it’s at.