Not the absorption capacity of the land, but the creative ability of a people, is the true yardstick with which we can measure the immigration potentialities of the land.

The State of Israel will prove itself not by material wealth, not by military might or technical achievement, but by its moral character and human values.

In order to be a realist, you must believe in miracles.

The present map of Palestine was drawn by the British mandate. The Jewish people have another map which our youth and adults should strive to fulfill: from the Nile to the Euphrates.

We regard it as our duty to declare that Jewish Jerusalem is an organic and inseparable part of the State of Israel, as it is an inseparable part of the history of Israel, of the faith of Israel.

It's not enough to be up to date, you have to be up to tomorrow.

It is in the Negev that the creativity and pioneer vigor of Israel shall be tested.

If an expert says it can't be done, get another expert.

No city in the world, not even Athens or Rome, ever played as great a role in the life of a nation for so long a time, as Jerusalem has done in the life of the Jewish people.

We must do everything to ensure they [the Palestinians] never do return. The old will die and the young will forget,

Ours is a country built more on people than on territory. The Jews will come from everywhere: from France, from Russia, from America, from Yemen... Their faith is their passport.

If seeds waited for perfect conditions to grow, there would be no plants in the desert.

...I Know it hurts. But sometimes it's the greatest things in our lives that cause us the most pain. That's why it hurts so much, because they're so important.

One cliche attached to bookish people is that they are lonely, but for me books were my way out of being lonely.

An attempt to study the evolution of living organisms without reference to cytology would be as futile as an account of stellar evolution which ignored spectroscopy.

If we were all given by magic the power to read each other's thoughts I suppose the first effect would be to dissolve all friendships.

So many complaints boil down to the belly ache of the fragile, mortal, ignored ego in a vast and indifferent universe.

Success doesn't come instantly. Neither does the ability to lead.

All euphemisms are dishonest, but many are designed to make life easier

Men don't respond to words. What they respond to is "no contact".

I still have in me the same awareness when I was 12 and chubby and a girl was spitting in my face. I'm the same person.