A nation writes its history in the image of its ideal.
ABBA EBANHistory teaches us that men and nations behave wisely once they have exhausted all other alternatives.
More Abba Eban Quotes
-
-
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.
ABBA EBAN -
Consensus is what many people say in chorus but do not believe as individuals.
ABBA EBAN -
Salvation, the prophets tell us, is preconditioned by repentance. The redeeming act of God waits upon man’s initiative.
ABBA EBAN -
Tragedy is not what men suffer but what they miss.
ABBA EBAN -
If Algeria introduced a resolution declaring that the earth was flat and that Israel had flattened it, it would pass by a vote of 164 to 13 with 26 abstentions.
ABBA EBAN -
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 -
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]
ABBA EBAN -
Palestinians never miss an opportunity to miss an opportunity.
ABBA EBAN -
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.
ABBA EBAN -
The Jews are the living embodiment of the minority, the constant reminder of what duties societies owe their minorities, whoever they might be.
ABBA EBAN -
Israel is not an aviary.
ABBA EBAN -
It is our experience that political leaders do not always mean the opposite of what they say.
ABBA EBAN -
His ignorance is encyclopedic.
ABBA EBAN -
Tragedy is the difference between what is and what could have been.
ABBA EBAN -
Human beings act intelligently only after they have exhausted the alternatives
ABBA EBAN