I think that this is the first war in history that on the morrow the victors sued for peace and the vanquished called for unconditional surrender.
ABBA EBANLest Arab governments be tempted out of sheer routine to rush into impulsive rejection, let me suggest that tragedy is not what men suffer but what they miss.
More Abba Eban Quotes
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Science is not a sacred cow. Science is a horse. Don’t worship it. Feed it. [Addressing a group of prospective contributors to an Israeli scientific research program]
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It [idolatry] nourishes mans ambition to domineer over his fellow man. Idolatry, therefore, is the source of all social and moral evil in the world.
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Israel is not an aviary.
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You can’t achieve anything without getting in someone’s way. You can’t be detached and effective.
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A statesman who keeps his ear permanently glued to the ground will have neither elegance of posture nor flexibility of movement.
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It is our experience that political leaders do not always mean the opposite of what they say.
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Zionism is nothing more, but also nothing less, than the Jewish People’s sense of origin and destination in the Land linked eternally with its name.
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Salvation, the prophets tell us, is preconditioned by repentance. The redeeming act of God waits upon man’s initiative.
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Palestinians never miss an opportunity to miss an opportunity.
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History teaches us that men and nations behave wisely once they have exhausted all other alternatives.
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Our intention to regard the closing of the Straits as a casus belli was communicated…to the foreign ministers of those states which had supported international navigation in the Straits in 1957 and thereafter.
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Lest Arab governments be tempted out of sheer routine to rush into impulsive rejection, let me suggest that tragedy is not what men suffer but what they miss.
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Consensus is what many people say in chorus but do not believe as individuals.
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Tragedy is the difference between what is and what could have been.
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Playing the game I have learned the meaning of humility. It has given me an understanding of futility of the human effort.
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