Quotes from David Ben-Gurion

Suffering makes a people greater, and we have suffered much. We had a message to give the world, but we were overwhelmed, and the message was cut off in the middle. In time there will be millions of us - becoming stronger and stronger - and we will complete the message.

The test of democracy is freedom of criticism.

Anyone who doesn't believe in miracles is not a realist.

Courage is... the knowledge of how to fear what ought to be feared and how not to fear what ought not to be feared.

Courage is a special kind of knowledge the knowledge of how to fear what ought to be feared and how not to fear what ought no to be feared.

Courage is a special kind of knowledge; the knowledge of how to fear what ought to be feared and how not to fear what ought not to be feared.

The great Jewish scientists and philosophers of the last few generations - Spinoza, Einstein, Freud, Robert Oppenheimer and others - were natives of Europe and America.

Israel will not discuss a peace involving the concession of any piece of territory. The neighboring states do not deserve an inch of Israel's land. . . . We are ready for exchange for peace.

We offer peace and neighborliness to all the neighboring states and their peoples, and invite them to cooperate with the independent Hebrew nation for the common good of all.

Referring to Palestinian refugees: "We must do everything in our power to ensure that they never return.

When a Jew, in America or in South Africa, talks to his Jewish companions about 'our' government, he means the government of Israel.

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.

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

To be realistic, you have to believe in miracles.

Courage is... the knowledge of how to fear what ought to be feared and how not to fear what ought not to be feared.

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

Anyone who doesn't believe in miracles is not a realist.

There are eleven million Jews in the world. I don't say that all of them will come here, but I expect several million, and with natural increase I can quite imagine a Jewish state of ten million.

Without moral and intellectual independence, there is no anchor for national independence.

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.

Israel has created a new image of the Jew in the world - the image of a working and an intellectual people, of a people that can fight with heroism.

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.

Anyone who believes you can't change history has never tried to write his memoirs.

The Arabs will have to go, but one needs an opportune moment for making it happen, such as a war.