Humorous Quotes attributed to Golda Meir
1898-1978, Israeli Prime Minister

A teacher is one who has a program – arithmetic, reading, writing, and so on – fulfills it conscientiously, and feels that he has done his job. An educator tries to give children something else in addition: spirit.

(Asked if she feels handicapped at being a woman Minister) I don’t know – I’ve never tried to be a man.

Being seventy is not a sin. It’s not a joy, either.

Do you think we’re so particular whether we die by nuclear weapons or conventional weapons?

Don’t be so humble you're not that great.

(Explaining that Israel’s problem is not territorial, but rather the enemy’s refusal to sit down and talk with Israeli representatives.) Suppose we want to return territory we have taken. To whom? We can't send it to Nasser by parcel post.

I am beginning to feel sorry for the Security Council, which sits there and discusses us. It might make more sense if the Knesset were to pass judgment on the Security Council.

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.

I understand the Arabs wanting to wipe us out, but do they really expect us to co-operate?

If Russia thinks it can prepare a peace plan acceptable to us, and has enough influence on President Nasser to get him to agree, then it has enough influence on him to say, "For God’s sake, sit down with the Israelis and make peace directly."

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.

No people in the world knows collective eulogies as well as the Jews do. But we have no intention of going down in order that some should speak well of us.

Not only as citizens of Israel, but as citizens of the world, we are vitally interested that there should be an understanding between America and the Soviet Union, but, to say it very bluntly: Not at our expense.

(of the Soviet government) The most realistic regime in the world. No ideals.

One of the first sights that shocked me, when I came to Israel in 1921, was an Arab turning over a field with a very primitive plow; pulling the plow were an ox and a woman. Now, if it means that we have destroyed this romantic picture by bringing in tractors, combines, and threshing machines, this is true: we have.

Our secret weapon: No alternative.

No Hurry!
Just before Israel won its independence, Golda, dressed as an Arab woman, went to see King Abdullah. He asked her not to hurry proclamation of the state. She rejoined: “We have been waiting for two thousand years. Is that hurrying?”

(Reminded of the great emotional response of Soviet Jewry to her arrival in Moscow in 1948) If you had sent a broomstick to Moscow, and said it represented the State of Israel, it would have received the same welcome.

(Telling Billy Graham the secret of Israel’s success in Africa) We go there to teach, not to preach.

There should be some place on earth where there is a Jewish majority. As a minority we have quite a history.

There was a man in a Czarist Russian village who always knew in advance which night the horses were going to be stolen – because he was the gonif (thief). When Nassser warns that there’s going to be a war with Israel, how does he know? He’s the gonif.

(To young volunteers who came to Israel during the Six-Day War, and were preparing to return home) You were ready to die with us. Why don’t you want to live with us?

We don’t want wars even when we win.

We have our backs against the wall. We don’t even have a wall. We have a sea. The only friendly neighbor we have is the Mediterranean.

We’re told over and over again that Nasser is humiliated. Humiliated as a result of what? He wanted to destroy us, and - poor man - he failed. Somehow I just can't bring myself to feel too sorry for him.

(When her Chief of Cabinet suggested something for her to say to waiting journalists) You can't improve on saying nothing.

When I came to Palestine in 1921, the heavy industry was chocolate. And when I asked, “Why does it taste so sandy?" I was told, "Sand is our only natural resource."

When I saw King Hussein on television in the United States I was reminded of the story of the man who had killed his father and was up for murder. He pleaded with the judge, "Have pity on me; I’m an orphan.”

(When trying to deal with a series of assaults on women, one Minister suggested that women should not be allowed on the streets after dark.) Men are attacking the women, not the other way around. If there is going to be a curfew, let the men be locked up, not the women.

Zionism and pessimism are not compatible.

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Humorous Quotes attributed to Golda Meir1898-1978, Israeli Prime Minister

Humorous Quotes attributed to Golda Meir
1898-1978, Israeli Prime Minister