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.
ABBA EBANConsensus is what many people say in chorus but do not believe as individuals.
More Abba Eban Quotes
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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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Better to be disliked than pitied.
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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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Salvation, the prophets tell us, is preconditioned by repentance. The redeeming act of God waits upon man’s initiative.
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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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Israel is not an aviary.
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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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History teaches us that men and nations behave wisely once they have exhausted all other alternatives.
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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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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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Tragedy is the difference between what is and what could have been.
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A consensus means that everyone agrees to say collectively what no one believes individually.
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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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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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Human beings act intelligently only after they have exhausted the alternatives
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