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 EBANHis ignorance is encyclopedic.
More Abba Eban Quotes
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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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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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Palestinians never miss an opportunity to miss an opportunity.
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Human beings act intelligently only after they have exhausted the alternatives
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History teaches us that men and nations behave wisely once they have exhausted all other alternatives.
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Tragedy is not what men suffer but what they miss.
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A nation writes its history in the image of its ideal.
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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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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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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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You can’t achieve anything without getting in someone’s way. You can’t be detached and effective.
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Consensus is what many people say in chorus but do not believe as individuals.
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Better to be disliked than pitied.
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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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The Jews are the living embodiment of the minority, the constant reminder of what duties societies owe their minorities, whoever they might be.
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