Golda Meir Quotes

59 Sourced Quotes

We owe a responsibility not only to those who are in Israel but also to those generations that are no more, to those millions who have died within our lifetime, to Jews all over the world, and to generations of Jews to come. We hate war. We do not rejoice in victories. We rejoice when a new kind of cotton is grown, and when strawberries bloom in Israel.

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

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

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

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

Golda Meir
The world hates a Jew who hits back. The world loves us only when we are to be pitied.

Golda Meir
I am also grateful that I live in a country whose people have learned how to go on living in a sea of hatred without hating those who want to destroy them and without abandoning their own vision of peace. To have learned this is a great art, the prescription for which is not written down anywhere. It is part of our way of life in Israel.

Golda Meir
The only alternative to war is peace and the only road to peace is negotiations.

Golda Meir
Can we today measure devotion to husband and children by our indifference to everything else?

Golda Meir
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.

Golda Meir
Those who do not know how to weep with their whole heart don't know how to laugh either.

Golda Meir
I'm a slave to this leaf in a diary that lists what I must do, what I must say, every half hour.

Golda Meir
If we have to have a choice between being dead and pitied, and being alive with a bad image, we'd rather be alive and have the bad image.

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

Golda Meir
We have not the slightest doubt that eventually there will be peace and cooperation between us. This is a historic necessity for both peoples.

Golda Meir
What do you gain, Soviet Union, from this miserable policy? Where is your decency? Would it be a disgrace for you to give up this battle?

Golda Meir
I prefer to stay alive and be criticized than be sympathized.

Golda Meir
If only political leaders would allow themselves to feel, as well as to think, the world might be a happier place.

Golda Meir
I don't want to have a bad influence on anybody, but there's no point in my giving up cigarettes now. I won't die young.

Golda Meir
We don't thrive on military acts. We do them because we have to, and thank God we are efficient.

Golda Meir
I thought that a Jewish state would be free of the evils afflicting other societies: theft, murder, prostitution... But now we have them all. And that's a thing that cuts to the heart...

Golda Meir
I want to see a film, they send the Israeli army reserves to escort me! What kind of life is this?

Golda Meir
Let me tell you something that we Israelis have against Moses. He took us 40 years through the desert in order to bring us to the one spot in the Middle East that has no oil!

Golda Meir
We intend to remain alive. Our neighbors want to see us dead. This is not a question that leaves much room for compromise.

Golda Meir
Anybody who believes in something without reservation believes that this thing is right and should be, has the stamina to meet obstacles and overcome them.

Golda Meir