Human beings act intelligently only after they have exhausted the alternatives
ABBA EBANA nation writes its history in the image of its ideal.
More Abba Eban Quotes
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Nobody does Israel any service by proclaiming its ‘right to exist.’ Israel’s right to exist, like that of the United States, Saudi Arabia and 152 other states, is axiomatic and unreserved.
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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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Better to be disliked than pitied.
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A nation writes its history in the image of its ideal.
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Tragedy is not what men suffer but what they miss.
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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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Tragedy is the difference between what is and what could have been.
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One of the chief tasks of any dialogue with the Gentile world is to prove that the distinction between anti-Semitism and anti-Zionism is not a distinction at all.
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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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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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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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Palestinians never miss an opportunity to miss an opportunity.
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A consensus means that everyone agrees to say collectively what no one believes individually.
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Consensus is what many people say in chorus but do not believe as individuals.
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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 EBAN