Golda Meir Quotes

We Jews have a secret weapon in our struggle with the Arabs; we have no place to go.

Pessimism is a luxury that a Jew can never allow himself.

A leader who doesn't hesitate before he sends his nation into battle is not fit to be a leader.

There's no difference between one's killing and making decisions that will send others to kill. It's exactly the same thing, or even worse.

To be or not to be is not a question of compromise. Either you be or you don't be.

A story once went the rounds of Israel to the effect that Ben-Gurion described me as 'the only man' in his cabinet. What amused me about is that he (or whoever invented the story) thought that this was the greatest compliment that could be paid to a woman. I very much doubt that any man would have been flattered if I had said about him that he was the only woman in the government!

Above all, this country is our own. Nobody has to get up in the morning and worry what his neighbors think of him. Being a Jew is no problem here.

I must govern the clock, not be governed by it.

Whether women are better than men I cannot say - but I can say they are certainly no worse.

Old age is like a plane flying through a storm. Once you're aboard, there's nothing you can do.

My dear, old age is like an airplane flying in a storm. Once you're in it there's nothing you can do. You can't stop a plane, you can't stop a storm, you can't stop time. So you might as well take it easy, with wisdom.

We do not rejoice in victories. We rejoice when a new kind of cotton is grown and when strawberries bloom in Israel.

To be successful, a woman has to be much better at her job than a man.

The Egyptians could run to Egypt, the Syrians into Syria. The only place we could run was into the sea, and before we did that we might as well fight.

Women's liberation is just a lot of foolishness. It's men who are discriminated against. They can't bear children. And no one is likely to do anything about that.

There can be no doubt that the average man blames much more than he praises. His instinct is to blame. If he is satisfied he says nothing; if he is not, he most illogically kicks up a row.

I don't know why you use a fancy French word like detente when there's a good English phrase for it - cold war.

Fashion is an imposition, a reign on freedom.

The dog that trots about finds a bone.

I never did anything alone. Whatever was accomplished in this country was accomplished collectively.

It's no accident many accuse me of conducting public affairs with my heart instead of my head. Well, what if I do? Those who don't know how to weep with their whole heart don't know how to laugh either.

The Soviet government is the most realistic regime in the world - no ideals.

Arab sovereignty in Jerusalem just cannot be. This city will not be divided-not half and half, not 60-40, not 75-25, nothing.

At work, you think of the children you have left at home. At home, you think of the work you've left unfinished. Such a struggle is unleashed within yourself. Your heart is rent.

It is true we have won all our wars, but we have paid for them. We don't want victories anymore.

As President Nixon says, presidents can do almost anything, and President Nixon has done many things that nobody would have thought of doing.

I can honestly say that I was never affected by the question of the success of an undertaking. If I felt it was the right thing to do, I was for it regardless of the possible outcome.

Being seventy is not a sin.

Authority poisons everybody who takes authority on himself.

We have always said that in our war with the Arabs we had a secret weapon - no alternative.